American Disability Research scholar Kim Nielsen visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Tuesday to discuss the history and repercussions of disabilities in the U.S., as part of an event put on by UW-Madison Disability Studies.
Nielsen, author of “A Disability History of the United States,” is a professor in the department of disability studies at the University of Toledo. Her research is one of the first scholarly attempts to examine the history of disabilities dating back to the period prior to European arrival.
Despite immersing herself in disability history, her writing came to a sudden halt after her 16-year-old daughter became disabled.
“It delayed the writing of my book, but it also deepened the book to make it better,” Nielsen said.
Nielsen discussed many famous examples of disabilities throughout history, including labeling immigrants with a “poor physique” in order to keep them out of the U.S.
“Immigration officials used the poor-physique category to reject individuals suspected of homosexuality or having bodies with ambiguous sexual organs,” Nielsen said. “They also excluded those with epilepsy, the feeble-minded and the mentally or physically disabled.”
Nielsen also described a slave trade ship that encountered the first symptoms of a disease causing blindness.
“Slaves with failed eyesight were tied up and thrown into the sea. African Americans were considered a loss of profit because the blind could not do labor,” Nielsen said.
While these are stories of disability, they are also stories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class, according to Nielsen. She also said these stories are “essential” to understanding American history.
Nielsen also examined the importance of independence in United States. According to Nielsen, U.S. history demonstrates citizens have the mindset that independence is good, and dependency is bad.
“When disability is connected with dependency, disability becomes stigmatized as inferior citizens. When disability is understood as dependency, disability is then posited in direct contrast to American ideas of independence,” Nielsen said.
Although Nielsen said disability education is facing many challenges, she encouraged students to continue their research in disability studies.
