Where did we put all the disabled people?

I'm old, old enough to finally start asking the questions that have bugged me my entire life. I'm here to ask only this one question:

Where did we put all the disabled people?

When I was a young child in school (pre-junior high)I used to see all kinds from blind, deaf, missing limbs (children from that one morning sickness pill that severely damaged fetuses had reached school age), learning disabilities, mute, speech impediments, genetic disorders, etc. The whole range. By the time I was almost done with elementary school, most of the ones I still saw were minor learning disorders and muscular distrophy. By junior high, only those with Asperger syndrome were still around. By adulthood, I haven't seen a single disabled person (that isn't a war vet), and my 20's were a long time ago. The only people I see parking in the handicapped spots are people with "I'm a vet" plates and the elderly.

Where did we put all of these children/adults? I understand many of the issues some of the children I went to school with didn't come with a long life expectancy, and progress has been made in the modern era. But there were so many... Surely they didn't all die. Where did they go? I apologize if this question bothers you all, but I went to large schools as a child, and there had to have been hundreds of disabled children, they had an entire wing of the campus.

Why don't I see them as adults? Being deaf shouldn't stop you from shopping at Walmart. I never see sign language, or people using braille, or those fancy machines in the library that transform books and audio into other tactile media.

Its just bothered me for a long long time.

These days there are day centres for disabled adults, I myself went to one in the UK until the government closed it. The day centres where for activities to keep the brain stimulated like games, sewing and days out. They give carers a day off and we all got fed. As for disabled people shopping they do still go shopping or out! To be honest I hate going out when it's busy, I prefer to do it online! I also hate going out in the cold as it effects my joints badly and I suffer for a good week or so with pain.
We are out there we just blend in! I still go out! I've just come back from a lovely holiday where people couldn't miss me in my pimped out wheelchair!! :laugh:

If you go to a sporting event you will see 100s of disabled people.

A lot of disabled people go shopping too. And a lot of disabled people go to work.

Maybe you don't go out much?

Karl

I appreciate the answer. Are these centers in select cities or all over? Do they round up the disabled and take them there? I guess if you were to gather up all the disabled people and put them in a few locations that would explain why I haven't seen a seeing eye dog or that long cane for the blind in about 40 years. Maybe people just move to these centers.

But outside of the everyday blind/deaf/mute, what happened to all the Thalidomide/Zofran children I knew as child? They literally disappeared after elementary.

They are all around you. In the pubs and bars. At football matches, shopping and so they should be. We may be disabled and yes some of us are old and new to this change in life. I go out all the time. People with fore-shortened limbs, cerbral palsy and all the gamut of d,isability. We cope. We adapt our lives according to our disabilities. Special education, schools, college and universities. Yes with the able bodied. Why should they be shut away as in the past. Life is for living and that goes for everybody. The fact that somebody is disabled should not shut them off from "Normal" life. There are lots of places where the needs of the disabled are catered for and so they should be. We are part of society whether it is inconvenient for some. Let's face it we are not going to go away. Many of the disabled make large contributions to society and the lucky ones are part of the work force or can contribute through the arts, science etc. Even in political life. We need them to be a voice for us. This site is a result of the disabled deciding to make changes, communicate and enrich our lives and share with the able bodied our hopes, our dreams and yes our difficulties. Communication and eucation. I will get off my soap box now!

That's a good speech. I bet you get to practice it a lot. The question isn't whether or not you can do things or should be allowed outside or whatever. The question was, 'where did they all go?' I go outside a lot. I ride, walk, hike, shop, drive and go where everyone else goes. I've lived in 7 US cites (and several states), 4 countries, and I haven't seen a disabled person outside of the odd war Vet or two and the elderly since the mid 1980's. There were too many disabled children I went to school with in the 70's for them all to disappear. I have never met anyone that I can use ASL on since then.

Go on, live your lives as you see fit, but 40 years is a long time to have gone without seeing even one of you. However, everyone else seems to have indicated that there are special centers where you all go to live/work/play. For lack of a better word, there are concentration centers where all the disabled people went to. I don't know where they are, but it gives me a new line of research to investigate. I must find these hidden centers. I simply must know where you all went. Its like the Ent wives from Lord of the Rings. They just got up one day and left.