Joseph Merrick's Influence On Society

Society’s opinion on something is never fixed. It is unstable and constantly changing quickly due to new ideas and information. Certain ideas on things such as how to treat people different than you that was believed thousands of years ago is no longer believed today. The way society has treated people with disabilities has drastically changed over the years. Daniel Keyes was born in 1927 and as a young adult he entered the U.S Maritime Marines to help pay for schooling. After that he got his B.A in psychology from Brooklyn College, continued on to get his M.A degree and became an English teacher, a profession that his parents did not want him to go into. He once said that “education was driving a wedge between him and the people he loved.”
Merrick was born in the 19th century. He was a healthy baby but in his early childhood he began to develop lumpy, grayish skin, and parts of his body grow disproportionally. After his mother died and his father remarried he was sent to work to help the family make money, but after some time he ran away because his father was abusive. Eventually he joined a human curiosity exhibit and was put on display. Hundreds of people came to see the “Half-a-Man and Half-an-Elephant.” When people got bored of freak shows in England he began to tour Europe where he was beaten and robbed. He came back to London a year later where doctors and high society took special interests in him and he spent the rest of his life in the London hospital. At age 27, Joseph Merrick died in London Hospital, from Asphyxia caused by the weight of his head when he laid down.
Advocates saw this as a time to get out there and bring about changes. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 brought about funded programs, equal government employment opportunities and prohibited discrimination against the disabled. Two years later in 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed, later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and now all disabled people not only had the right to education, it was illegal for them not to receive it. In 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was past ensuring, equal treatment and access to public accommodations. Before this people could be denied access to things like public bathrooms or the buses. (A Brief History of the Disability Rights Movement) Today there are still many advancements for the disabled being made. Children with intellectual disabilities are separated into special classes where they get the help that they need, special attention and services. There are also lots of programs to get the disabled involved in the community. One of these programs is the Special Olympics, which allows both children and adults with learning disabilities to compete all over the world, in sports that they would not normally be able to