Disability : a new history. Doing and being. 6/10.

Radio documentary presented by Peter White entitled 'Doing and being' about work. Chris Mounsey, University of Winchester, recently blind himself, talks of an 18th century blind poet, Priscilla Pointon who wrote about everyday events in her life. She made her money through a subscription list where people paid in advance for her work. However, it is more difficult to find out about working disabled people at the other end of the social scale. In the mid-19th century, Henry Mayhew, in his 'London Labour and the London Poor' (1861), records the story of lame Irish crossing sweeper, who was helped out financially by his friends. There was no sense of special treatment for disabled people in the workforce. Historian, Julie Anderson, University of Kent, says there was a large range of work undertaken by disabled people in the Victorian period. Women with disabilities, in particular, were not considered very marriageable so often had to work. One source of information on the times are the letters written to the Poor Law guardians asking for money, including one from Charles Symcock in Manchester who had lost the use of his right leg. Professor Steven King, Leicester University, says that letters like this show that everyone in the 18th and 19th centuries identified themselves through work. There was seen as no point in paying someone physically fit to do a job that someone with a disability could do, which also reduced their need to claim welfare benefits.