Breaking the rules: Summer camping experiences and the lives of Ontario children growing up with polio in the 1940s and 1950s

The everyday histories of disabled Canadians remain essentially invisible and unknown in dominant historical narratives of this country (Baynton 2001, 33). The social history of people who lived with polio is no exception (Aitken et al. 2004). ¹ One response to the Canadian polio epidemic of 1937 was the development of the Ontario Society for Crippled Children (O.S.C.C.) summer camps for disabled children. Originating in 1937, these camps were conceived as opportunities for disabled children (many with polio) to experience life as a “normal,” non-disabled child. The O.S.C.C. philosophy reveals normative ableist notions of disability, most clearly demonstrated in two archival documents from this time – The History of the Ontario Society for Crippled Children (1967) and Summer Camp Objectives (n.d.). These documents, in particular the Summer Camp Objectives, provide fertile ground to analyse the dominant views of disability during this historical time period.