"Blindsaken"

Några nedslag i det handikapphistoriska fältet

Abstract

In the present article I discuss a field of research in need of further development, namely the history of the relationship between society and those of its members with physical disabilities. Inspiration comes mainly from international disability research and disability studies. Using examples from the visually impaired ⁠— the so-called "blind question" ⁠— my aim is to point out the complexity lying within the common terms for reduced physical ability. How well do we really understand the implications of categorizing an individual as "blind"? Finally, I provide several examples from the source material with which I am now working, reports from blindness inspectors and stories of how the blind lived their lives in the first few decades of the twentieth century. Here too, the dominant discourse on the view of the blind emerges clearly.