Every Chapter Counts
Topic · 1 stories

Disability & Institutions

Connected stories across time and communities.

All topics
Archival-style illustration of a late 19th-century city sidewalk where a visibly disabled or poor person sits near public foot traffic while a police officer stands nearby, suggesting how law shaped who could occupy public space.
Disability, Eugenics & Institutionalization

Ugly Laws and the Policing of Public Space

Ugly laws used local ordinances to push visibly disabled, poor, disfigured, or begging people out of public view. This article explains how those laws worked, who they affected, and why the right to be seen in public remains central to disability history.