Disability history emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1990s. Its rise was influenced by the disability rights movement and broader trends in historiography, such as women’s history and the history of marginalized groups. Disability is studied not only through individual experiences but also as a lens to examine sociocultural norms, marginalization, and power. A core challenge in historical analysis is defining what counts as “disability,” because the term, and the shared identity it implies, is a modern concept. In earlier periods, people with impairments or chronic conditions were not viewed, nor did they view themselves, as a unified group. Whether someone was perceived as disabled depended on the social and cultural context, and different conditions disabled individuals in different ways.

Gender has always shaped how disability is perceived and experienced. Bodily expectations have varied according to gender, age, and social status, and nonnormative bodies have historically been both sites of identity and tools of classification and exclusion. Yet bodies are also culturally constructed and play a key role in how people relate to the world. Different societal expectations have been applied to men and women, which in turn has influenced the effects of impairment in their lives. Whereas women’s bodies have primarily been interpreted in the framework of marriage and family, men have been expected to do physical labor and earn a living. Religion has also been one of the key societal spaces in which bodies, both normative and nonnormative ones, have been interpreted and interacted with.