ABSTRACT
It is necessary to present some of my background in order to put this paper into its proper context. I am employed by The Spastics Society, a voluntary organization in England and Wales which is one of the biggest charities concerned with the welfare of handicapped people. Its services range from preventive medicine and research through a series of provisions for children, schools, employment services, workshops, and residential care of older handicapped people. Whereas its services are mainly directly available to cerebral palsied children and adults, the implications of its publicity and political activities spread over a wide field of disabilities. In particular, of recent years its great concern has been for those cerebral palsied and other handicapped people of relatively low intellectual abilities who have been placed in hospitals for the severely subnormal.
