The Ugly History of Ugly Laws

Guest: Susan Schweik, Professor of English, UC Berkeley and Author of “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public” Up until the 1970s, a number of US cities had laws on the books that made it illegal to be seen in public if you had a physical deformity. Can you imagine? It sounds so appalling –and today we can pat ourselves on the back for having seen the error of our ways. But the history of how these so-called “ugly laws” came about be offers insight into how we think about disability in America.