The Social Space of Disability in Colonial Melbourne

Two specific historiographical problems condition the study of disablement in past

Western societies. First, disability is a pervasive social phenomenon which the social

sciences have, astonishingly, long ignored – only in recent times has this deficiency

begun to be corrected (Abberley, 1987). Of most concern for the present analysis is

the lack of historical analyses of disablement. Oliver has remarked that '[o]n the

experience of disability, history is largely silent' (1990: xi). There is therefore an epis-

temological problem – theoretical underdevelopment – that immediately confronts

any attempt to explain some aspect of the lived experience of disability.