[3-part documentary]

Episode 1 of 3 - Parallel Worlds. 

Prehistory - 1400s 

In this new Yarn Miniseries I’m going to give you a rough history of Disability. 

The story of Disability runs in parallel with the story of humanity itself and like the story of humanity, some of it isn’t pretty. It involves murder, neglect, segregation and sterilisation but it’s also a story of innovation, determination and love. 

In episode one I define what a disability is before diving into the past. I start with the Neanderthals, checking in with the Egyptians, the Celts, the Ancient Romans and I also highlight the effect organised Religion has on the perception of people with a disability. 

Written and narrated by John Roche. 

- 

Full episode transcript available here:

- 

Sources 

Short history of disability By Dr Robert Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2qgVhmH88 MN Department of Administration - Council on Development Disabilities https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/index.html World Bank https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/ History Channel https://www.history.com/topics/germany/eugenics PBS https://www.pbs.org/weta/throughdeafeyes/deaflife/bell_nad.html United Nations Human Rights Office of High Commissioner https://www.ohchr.org/ Dr. William Bronston, Willowbrook Memorial Lecture https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/five/5f/willowbrook-bronston-memorial.html Welcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/works IWM Archive https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock RTE Archive https://www.rte.ie/archives/ The Times Archive https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ancient-walking-aids-5232vx5n9j0 Special Olympics https://www.specialolympics.org JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/3288457?seq=1 IPC https://www.paralympic.org/ Greek Gods info https://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/hephaestus/ YouTube