A brief history of disability in NI.

1921 to 1945

1821: legislation passed for ‘District Lunatic Asylums’ (still in place in Northern Ireland comes into being).

1932: Mental Health Act (NI) passed into law.

1930’s: Nazis forcibly sterilise 360,000 disabled people.

1939 – 1941: Nazis systematically murder some 250,000 disabled people under their Action T4 ‘purity programme’.

1944: Disabled Persons (Employment) Act provides the first definition of a disabled person (rather than an impairment specific definition).

1945: 300,000 armed service personnel and civilians in the UK acquired disabilities arising from World War 2.