Throughout the majority of our site visits, the speakers have addressed accessibility and accommodations in historical buildings as a primary issue for people and students with disabilities. Inclusive living centers and universities have had difficulty putting up ramps and installing elevators in older buildings because it does not coincide with the historical accuracies of the area or “devalues the home.”
This raises concern because it significantly threatens the quality of life that people with disability have as they try to navigate throughout society, despite the relatively low costs of the accommodations. But even further, it raises concern on the type of history we are trying to preserve.
In school we learned about the systemic mistreatment that people with disabilities have faced throughout history, including institutionalization, violence, and ignorance. These issues were further highlighted during our ghost tour, when our guide explained the story of the Earl of Drumlanrig who was described as being “born different”, “psychotic”, and even a “cannabolistic imbecile”. The guide explained the story of the young earl who was isolated from society since birth and resigned to a guarded and locked room where he was only allowed to see sunlight for one hour a day. The story goes that when the earl was 12 he broke out of his room and killed and ate a kitchen boy.
I tried to research the story more but couldn’t find information on the story’s legitimacy. Nevertheless, the story illustrates the awful treatment and care that people with disabilities faced in our history and how stories like these are can be fantasized and used to perpetuate the ridicule that people with disabilities can unfortunately face.
This story was striking to me because it illustrates the mistreatment that people with disabilities faced throughout history and made me think about the type of history we are trying to preserve by placing restrictions on accommodations in these buildings. It seems like an injustice to refuse accommodations in the name of historical preservation when Edinburgh and the rest of society holds a past that was so disrespectful towards theses groups. Instead, we should be focusing on improving our society and infrastructure to better support all of its citizens.
Christine,
Wow. Cool thoughts! This city is pretty inaccessible and it’s a shame that some buildings can’t become accessible. Everyone should be able to enjoy this beautiful city no matter their disability. I wonder what buildings meet this classification of “too old†and “too historic†to be made accommodating?
I totally agree that purposely leaving certain buildings inaccessible solely for the sake of preserving history, especially a discriminatory and disrespectful one, is not a good reason for refusing to update them. I think that this issue comes down to the tendency of some people to value history and tradition over the needs of people in the current day. I wonder how we might, as a society, start to shift our priorities towards inclusivity and away from this outdated way of thinking?