ABSTRACT

Until the nineteenth century disabled people who could not work were dependent on their families and friends, as well as haphazard charity, for all their needs. This chapter focuses on manual work for blind people and the rise and fall of the workshop as a place of training and employment. Organisations, often referred to as Visiting Societies and Home Teaching Societies, were established in the nineteenth century which had a wider remit than the existing institution. By mid-nineteenth century there was growing criticism of blindness institutions which concerned poor administration, misuse of resources and the damaging effect of institutional life upon the inmates. The protests of the National League of the Blind (NLB) between 1920 and 1936, increased awareness of the impoverished condition of large swathes of the population with many demonstrations and writings. The 1944 Disabled Person's Employment Act also established Remploy, a non-profit making company consisting of a network of factories, which provided sheltered employment for disabled people.