Introduction

The human rights agenda, broadly defined, promotes health and well-being by upholding ‘opportunity and choice, freedom of speech, respect for individuality and an acceptance of difference in all spheres of life’ (Armstrong and Barton, 1999, p 211). For disabled people, the realisation of these aspirations is an inclusive society, where the economic, political, ideological, social and cultural barriers that underpin inequality and discrimination are dismantled. The purpose of this chapter is to assess the historical development of education for disabled children against the human rights yardstick, focusing on Britain between the late 18th century and the early 1980s. Three main themes will be pursued: the inability of legal entitlements to replace segregated with inclusive schooling; the contribution of the professions to this failure; and the threat to human rights posed by schooling that compromised participation in family, community and employment. The chapter will conclude by locating education within a broader framework of social exclusion that encompasses cultural representation as well as public policy.

From segregation to inclusion?

Charitable origins

Segregated education for disabled children dates back to the early modern period when dedicated institutions emerged from private tuition. Sensory impairments – judged to be particularly pernicious because they denied full access to the word of God – were the initial category of disability to attract attention. Thus, the first ‘special’ school – opened in Edinburgh in 1764 – was for deaf pupils. Although this was a commercial venture, the institutions for deaf and blind pupils that multiplied from the 1790s were charitable foundations, resting upon voluntary donations and subscriptions (Phillips, 2004; Borsay, 2007). From the 1840s, the same formula was applied to institutions for intellectually impaired children, inspired by the belief that ‘idiocy’ was no longer beyond education (Wright, 2001). The result was a network of segregated schooling. By the end of the 19th century, there were in Britain over 50 institutions for blind children; 26 for deaf children; and a National Asylum for Idiots at Earlswood in Surrey, on which four regional asylums had also been modelled (Haswell, 1876; Woodford, 2000; Wright, 2001).