Roy Hanes is Associate Professor at Carleton University, Canada. He was a founding member of the Canadian Disability Studies Association and is well known for his disability rights activism.

Ivan Brown was Head of the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare at the University of Toronto, Canada, and a founding editor of the Journal on Developmental Disabilities.

Nancy E. Hansen is Director of the Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada, and past president of the Canadian Disability Studies Association.

Introduction Part I: Histories of Disabilities Across Time and Cultures Introduction to Part I CH. 1. Reason, value and persons: The construction of intellectual disability in western thought from antiquity to the romantic age CH. 2. The Courage of subordination: Women and intellectual disability in the ancient Greek World CH. 3. Jane Austen and Me: Tales from the Couch CH. 4. Developments in disability issues during the late Ottoman period of Turkish history from 1876 to 1909 CH. 5. A short history of disability in Italy CH.6. A short history of disability aspects from Israel Part II: Histories of national disability policies, programs and services Introduction to Part II CH. 7. The role of international institutions in the process of categorization of 'disabled people' (1930-1975) CH. 8. Disabilities and Disability Services in Nigeria: Past, Present and Future CH. 9. A Short History of Approaches to Disability in the Netherlands CH. 10. A Journey of Change - Histories of Disability in Hong Kong 1841-2014 CH. 11. Historical Development of Disability Services in Singapore: Enabling CH. 11. Historical Development of Disability Services in Singapore: Enabling Persons with Disabilities CH.12. Swedish disability policies: Ideas, values and practices in a historical perspective CH.13. One difference is enough: Towards a history of disability in Belgian-Congo, 1908-1960 Part III: Histories of Education and Training, Introduction to Part III CH. 14. From their own hands: Collecting oral testimony in signing communities CH.15. The history of access to education of people with visual impairments in Great Britain from 1790 to 1999 CH.16. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Blind Asylums and Missions in Scotland CH.17. Exposure and recovery: Tracing disability history in the midst of cultural absence CH.18. Australian Histories of Intellectual Disabilities CH. 19. History and national policy documents on special education in Sweden CH. 20. The Italian Path to School and Social Inclusion: Problems, Strengths and Perspectives CH. 21. Education of People with Intellectual Disabilities and Hearing Impairments in Spain: A Historical Approach CH.22. The Case of the "Dull" Pupil in the Norwegian Folk School 1892-1930 Part IV: Spectacle, Science, Services and Civil Rights Introduction to Part IV CH. 23. The freak show act: Science and spectacle in the nineteenth century CH. 24. Three Illusions in clinical photographs of the feeble minded during the Eugenics era CH. 25. When is life unworthy of living? Lessons from the systematic killing of children with disabilities in Nazi Germany Ch. 26. The Genesis of Societies for Crippled Children in Canada and their American Roots CH. 27. Breaking the rules: Summer camping experiences and the lives of Ontario children growing up with polio in the 1940s and 1950s CH. 28. Changing America's consciousness: A brief history of the Independent Living Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Concluding Remarks, Index