ABSTRACT
Recent estimates reckon that 20 percent of the world’s population has disabilities significantly affecting daily activities. The proportion was undoubtedly as high in the past. Because the history of handicapped people is just beginning to be reconstructed, this article can only suggest its probable contours. This is one of the frontier areas of sociohistorical research in which significant findings are only starting to emerge. Disabled persons’ social identities and experience, especially in modern times, have largely been determined by the ideologies shaping policies and institutions.
