Attitudes to handicapped

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 19

Attitudes to handicapped

The shift in public attitudes towards handicapped people in New Zealand was described recently by the former Minister of Education. Mr Taiboys, as “one of the real improvements in the quality of community life in the last 20 years.”

Mr Taiboys said that, as far as he could remember, mental retardation and the care of the intellectually handicapped were hardly ever discussed, or mentioned in the press, when he was a younger man. “Nor do I remember seeing intellectually handicapped children in public. They were truly invisible people to most of us,” he said. “We felt uncomfortable or even upset if we did meet them, and their parents shouldered their responsibilities alone. DIFFERENT NOW

“This is not true today. Although most of us know little about the causes of mental retardation, we do know that we have intellectually handicapped citizens in New Zealand.

“We are learning that they are much more like other people than we realised, and that they have the same needs and rights as we have.

“We meet parents with their retarded children in shops, at the beach and at social events, and we are coming to accept this as quite natural.”

By bringing the whole topic of mental retardation into the open, the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society had played an important part in promoting the change, he said. Mr Taiboys referred also to the support which the society had provided for many hundreds of parents. “Membership of the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society has given them opportunities to discuss problems among themselves, to help each other, and to work together in the interests of

their children,” he said. “These contacts have often been most important in helping parents of seriously retarded children to resolve their own disappointments and anxieties. They must come to terms with their own feelings before they can make full use of the information which doctors, psychologists and teachers can give them about their own child’s abilities and handicaps, and before they can plan wisely for the future,” he said.