Abandoned to Their Fate

Abandoned to Their Fate

Until the rise of the parents movement in the 1950's, prejudice and fear forced most people with mental retardation to live separate and unequal lives within our communities. The invisibility and abandonment of people with disabilities was based on society's perception that these people were failures.

Gunnar Dybwad: Historical Overview

Institutions

"We had larger and larger institutions, many of them placed in the countryside. In other words, they were isolated, and the confinement was longer and longer, if not permanent."