Birmingham Disability Resource Centre – History Project
A project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, exploring the history of the BDRC and the lives of disabled people. Read our history blog and contribute your memories and stories.
A PDF version of our history book Forward is available to view and download at this link:
There is also a blog version of the full text of the book at this link:
Google blog version of Forward
There will shortly be an audio version in MP3 format available online at I:Tunes
The audio, PDF and Word versions of the book on CD, as well as the printed book itself, are available (FREE) from:
Birmingham Disability Resource Centre
Bierton Road
Yardley
Birmingham
B25 8PQ
Voice: 0121 789 7365
Minicom: 0121 789 9230
Email: pmillington@disability.co.uk
Copyright details
First published 2010 by Birmingham Disability Resource Centre, Bierton Road, Yardley, Birmingham, B25 8PQ, UK, with funding received from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Copyright © Birmingham Disability Resource Centre 2010
The rights of Birmingham Disability Resource Centre and the contributors of this book, to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher (Birmingham Disability Resource Centre). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Illustration and Front Cover: Crippen (http://www.daveluptoncartoons.co.uk/ )
Editing and design by: Hazel Wood of Hazelwood Associates (http://www.hazelwooduk.com/ )
Printed by: Westpoint Printing Co Ltd, Fazeley Street, Birmingham, UK.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter One: The roots of change
Chapter Two: When the personal became political
Chapter Three: Defining moments and Building Bridges
Chapter Four : Spirit of perseverance
Chapter Five: Rights now!
Chapter Six : Doing it for ourselves
Chapter Seven : The man from the council
Chapter Eight : Empowering services
Chapter Nine : Forward!
Resourcefulness is etched into the very heart of Birmingham Disability Resource Centre. Its founders and supporters were people of enormous resourcefulness and determination in their quest for equal opportunities, education and dignity. This book is dedicated to them and to all those who have had to strive to be recognised for their abilities and their potential.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) distributes money raised by the National Lottery to heritage projects throughout the UK. These projects include multi-million-pound investments in well-known buildings and sites like Birmingham Town Hall and Hadrian’s Wall, and also smaller grants making a big difference to communities and community groups such as the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre.
Inever knew my Granddad Perry when he was able to walk. Our Granddad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1950s and one of the last times he was able to walk unaided was when he escorted Our Mom down the aisle on her wedding day in 1954.
In September 1992, a new centre opened in a section of the ground floor of an old public building in Birmingham which once used to be a school.
The school itself opened in 1928 and was known as Bierton Road Council School. Its intake of 86 pupils came from nearby Yardley Primary School. There are still many local people from South Yardley today who have memories of their school days from 1928 right up until it closed in 1985.
In the early part of the 20th century, life for working class people in Britain was harsh and opportunities were very limited. In his study of poverty, Life and Labour of the People in London, published at the turn of that century, social reformer Charles Boothe wrote that 30 per cent of the people of Britain’s capital city were living in poverty.
In the bleak, impoverished years of the 1930s, disabled people started to seek solidarity through self-help type social groups which evolved into fully regulated clubs, societies and associations. The Cripple’s Car Circle and the Birmingham and District Social Club for the Hard of Hearing both started in 1930 and in 1932 the Birmingham and Midland Limbless Ex-Service Association was formed.
The more specialised and, therefore, selective developments in special school education were increasingly seen by parents and, retrospectively in many cases, by pupils themselves, as being an exciting new opportunity.
Access was not based on wealth or class-based privilege, however, the longer term expectations of disabled people still remained limited.