ABSTRACT
This chapter explores new developments in Australian histories of intellectual disabilities, and presents an overview of the major historical shifts regarding these categories in Australia. When constructing survey histories we have to acknowledge both shifts in the definitions of the disabilities, as well as the broader social, medical, and cultural changes which shape them. The chapter considers "people with intellectual disabilities" to be anyone who may have been included in a range of older categories. It draws on the historians' work to provide a chronology of the major shifts in scientific and popular understandings of intellectual disabilities, and the significant changes in the provision of services for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia. "People with intellectual disabilities" is the term used in Australia to describe a diverse group of individuals with a range of cognitive impairments, genetic disorders, and various social disabilities, who test markedly below average on standardised tests of intelligence or behavioural development.
