ABSTRACT
The history of people with disabilities is complex and just beginning to be (re)claimed. For many cultures around the world, from ancient Mesopotamia to the present, a child with a disability represents displeasure of the gods. In ancient Greece, disabled infants were left in deserted locations to die—an act of returning them to the deities. Within influential texts such as the Bible, most people with disabilities were outcasts who were cured and redeemed as a way of glorifying God. When teaching disability history, most often find that students have no awareness whatsoever about the disability rights movement in the United States. Scholars in disability studies have called attention to how non-disabled people perceive individuals with disabilities. There are many paradoxes around the idea of disability. Commonplace representations of disabilities usually reinforce the overwhelmingly negative connotations associated with disability.
