Pogled na invalidnost kroz istoriju
The Attitudes towards Disability through the History

Summary/Abstract: Through history, attitudes towards people with disabilities were going through various phases, from acceptance and rejection to re-acceptance. There were four types of disability: the first one was gained in wars, the second one was a consequence of disease or trauma at birth, the third one resulted from a conflict with the law, while the fourth one was a result of accidents at work. The law regulations towards people with disabilities were restrictive and discriminating. Rejecting people with disabilities was most often a consequence of fear of disability, whether it was understood as the violation of God's norms or only as a consequence of disease. Superstition often determined the level up to which people with disabilities would be accepted or rejected, even the methods they would be treated with. There were many assumptions about the appearance of disability with children, which were later rejected. The age limit of mothers-to-be, parents’ alcoholism and frequent deliveries were believed to be responsible for disability. In the state of Yugoslavia, it was believed that there were about 159,887 of disabled people with disabilities of various causes and levels. A country with catastrophic health situation and insufficient hygienic culture, such was Yugoslavia between two World wars, had many reasons to define the state of disability. Definitions and their view of disability cause reveal the level of development of health and educational policy towards people with disabilities as a social group. People with disabilities were generally always thought of in the context of incapability in comparison with people without disabilities. A physical description of people with disabilities in medical sciences was in range from the proper perception of disability to making conclusion about disability based on the assumed anomalies which actually were not that. Gradually, medical sciences rejected prejudices against people with disabilities but this was a long process.

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