It is perhaps inevitable that the academic study of learning disabilities is often undertaken by established scholars with little lived experience of the condition. So, what has it been like for someone from outside the academy, with a long career in the arts, who is also the father of a severely learning-disabled young man, to write a book-length history of learning disabilities in culture and society? How is it possible to reconcile such a biological reality with the many caveats about the social construction of the condition? How can we retain a belief in scientific analysis when the categorisation of learning-disabled people seems to have caused as many problems as it solves? Furthermore, how can such an account be attempted when so much of the written record is by people who are placed in positions of power over learning-disabled people and when the true voice of experience is so often silenced, or, like the author's son, silent? The attempt to answer these questions reveals a field rich with contradiction. Despite some advances, much of the social and cultural history of learning disabilities tells a tale of neglect, abandonment and abuse, with confused cultural attitudes too often shaping practice. When the telescope is reversed, however, severe learning disabilities provide us with a kind of Brechtian “alienation effect” which reveals the fault lines running through so many progressive movements and helps us to frame them historically, while also challenging assumptions about how those with severe learning disabilities are regarded and can best be given the support and freedom that they need.

中文翻译：

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作为乔伊的父亲，书写学习障碍的历史

也许不可避免的是，学习障碍的学术研究通常由对这种情况几乎没有生活经验的知名学者进行。那么，一个在艺术界长期从事艺术事业，同时又是一个严重学习障碍年轻人的父亲的人，写了一部关于文化和社会学习障碍史的书，是怎样一种体验？ ? 怎样才能调和这样的生物学现实与关于条件的社会建构的许多警告？当学习障碍者的分类似乎引起的问题与解决的问题一样多时，我们如何保持对科学分析的信念？此外，当如此多的书面记录是由那些对学习障碍者拥有权力的人所写的，而当真正的经验之声经常被沉默，或者像作者的儿子一样，沉默时，怎么能尝试这样的叙述呢？回答这些问题的尝试揭示了一个充满矛盾的领域。尽管取得了一些进展，但学习障碍的许多社会和文化历史讲述了一个忽视、遗弃和虐待的故事，混乱的文化态度常常影响实践。然而，当望远镜倒转时，严重的学习障碍为我们提供了一种布莱希特式的“异化效应”，它揭示了贯穿如此多进步运动的断层线，并帮助我们从历史上构建它们，