Texas Disability Timeline

In 1999 the Governor's Committee commemorated its fiftieth anniversary by publishing "From Isolation to Participation… A History of Disability in Texas, 1835-1999," (http://www.governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/resources/history/history) recognizing the achievements of Texans with disabilities throughout time. With this updated and expanded timeline, we have more reasons to celebrate, highlighting the achievements of more Texans with disabilities, more stories of our past, and a better sense of what our future can be. We live in a connected world, and the scope of this piece reflects this by including additional stories from abroad that have trickled down to impact Texas.

As with "From Isolation to Participation," one dilemma we encountered is the changing definitions of disabilities. There are several characteristics that are identified as a disability today, that were unknown in our past, and this timeline reflects this change. In early Texas, learning disabilities, diabetes, and AIDS, to name a few, were not identifiable, so in our early timeline, these disabilities could not be recognized as they are in later times.

Similarly, the words we use to describe various disabilities have changed, and that history is recorded in this timeline. Not long ago, our culture's attention focused on differences in our bodies; today we focus on the person rather than the impairment: Thomas William Ward was named "Peg-Leg" Ward and Easter Seal Society for Children was named Society for "Crippled Children," we talked about "the epileptic insane" rather than people who have epilepsy. We have kept the language from our past to chart out, through time, how our language and culture has changed.

This is an ever expanding project, so we are very happy to research any additional information you may be able to provide. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Pat Pound at ppound@governor.state.tx.us.

This has been an exciting project, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.
Denè Granger, Administrative Assistant

1800s | 1900s | 2000s