Damned for their difference

Jan Branson and Don Miller trace how Deaf people came to be labelled as disabled, and why that label has been applied in such a belittling way across much of the world. Rather than treating the matter as settled, they read the attitudes and conduct directed at deaf people through the cultural, social and historical circumstances that shaped them, with a particular focus on Great Britain.

The chronology runs from the seventeenth century into the twentieth, following how the outlook on deaf people and the way they were treated changed over those centuries. Throughout, the authors examine the many ways the idea of "disabled" has been defined. They argue that the term's meaning is never fixed, because it is continually contested by the different groups involved, so no final definition is ever reached.

The book offers a sociological account of the practices that disable deaf people, approaching them as social processes rather than simply as facts about the body. It will interest readers studying Deaf history, disability studies, and the social history of deafness.