Did you know...
Posted November 2, 2011 at 7:00 pm
By Melissa Royer, ContributorIn my quest for information regarding helping services of the past, I have learned many interesting facts relevant to disability history in New York that fuel my interest and pursuit of knowledge in long forgotten days.
Did you know…
…The first New York State School for people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities was opened in Albany, N.Y. at the former “Bulls Head Tavern.” The year was 1851 and it was known as the Idiot Asylum or the Asylum for Idiots. Soon after opening with a student body of 16, it was realized a larger establishment would eventually be needed to accommodate the great number of applications being received and in 1855, the school relocated to a newly built establishment in Syracuse. The Syracuse State School, as it was later known, was in use for 118 years.
…One of the earliest known teachers of African American children who were “deaf, dumb and blind” became blind himself. Reverend Dr. Platt Henry Skinner was a native of Prattsburg, N.Y. and established his first “boarding” school in Washington DC. In 1858 the school was conducted in our very own backyard, Niagara Falls!
….Until 1865, almshouses were oftentimes used to house people with disabilities and had special wards for those considered insane. An interesting term we would not expect to hear today is “crazy yard,” which in one instance was a fenced-in section for some “inmates” to enjoy time outside while affording overseers no concern of their “escape.” This particular fence was nine feet high and made of stone.
Today we have specialized schools and programs for students with disabilities and state mandates to oversee their functions as well as provisions to provide for their well-being, quality of life and livelihood through old age.
I find it so curious that many concerns of today’s society are much the same as they have always been, different only in the time that they exist and perhaps the measures taken to improve upon them.
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