ABSTRACT
Throughout this chapter the writer uses terms such as ‘crippled’ and ‘defectives’. The use of these terms does not represent the writer's personal convictions, and it is not the writer's intent to offend or discredit persons with disabilities. The chapter addresses the development of charitable services for children with orthopaedic disabilities in Ontario, Canada, during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, and the terms ‘defective’ and ‘crippled’ were applied to these children (Platt, 1898; Thorndike, 1898; Henderson, 1904; Wallace, 1910; Howett, 1925). In terms of classification, children with orthopaedic disabilities did not exist during this time, but crippled and defective children did, and in this writer's attempt to be as historically accurate as possible the terminology of the era is used. Moreover, the use of the language and definitions of the era attests to the fluidity and social constructionist nature of the disability category (Scheer and Groce, 1988; Oliver, 1990; Hanes, 1995A; Hansen, 2002, Wendell, 2002; Thomas, 2007).
