ABSTRACT
This chapter develops from the theoretical to the historical, and present the chronology of disability in the United States. During colonial times, disabled people were hidden in attics and basements, remained unseen and often unacknowledged by the society around them and totally dependent upon family members’ hands, or hearts: "In the early years of the United States responsibility for assisting disabled people rested with the extended family". During the years of the Civil War, many soldiers suffered disabling injuries. Charles Dickens's Tiny Tim exemplifies the prevalent attitudes toward disability in the United States during much of the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution greatly increased the incidence of disabilities related to injury in the workplace. Most children with a disability have little or no limitation on daily activities, though exceptions include mental retardation, epilepsy, speech impairments, blindness, and deafness in both ears.
