Deaf and unwanted? : marriage characteristics of deaf people in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Belgium: a comparative and cross-regional approach

In this article, the marriage characteristics of deaf men and women born in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Belgium are compared to each other, as well as to a group of non-deaf siblings and a group of Swedish deaf persons. The aim is to determine the extent to which the marriage pattern of deaf persons lined up with that of non-disabled persons and to see how experiences of disablement interacted with the environment in which persons dwelt. This article challenges the belief in a universal disability experience by arguing that although deaf individuals generally encountered more difficulti... Mehr ...