How did people of the Medieval to Post-Enlightenment ages view disability?

by AmbrosiaSage

I have a disability myself, although it is invisible. As an early 20s lady with Asperger's and Mental Health issues, this question has been pervading my mind for months and months. I wonder how people like me were treated or how people with physical disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy were treated. Were they treated as "lesser" or did they get equal treatment. The reason why I am specifying Medieval to Post-Enlightenment is that a lot of changes happened and maybe changes in belief also potentially changed the way these people viewed people with disabilities, both invisible and visible. If anyone needs clarification on anything in my question, feel free to ask and I will give it the best I can.

TheUnfabulousKilljoy

People in the medieval age largely believed that people with disabilities that could easily be discerned like blindness or a bad leg were given that impairment by God as a punishment for their sins, so they were largely shunned and treated poorly. This is why hospitals were relatively unpopular until around the Rennaisance. I believe that in Germany in the 19th century there were some members of the royal family with what we now know is Down's syndrome, and they were treated more or less regularly. Somebody with Asperger's in those times would probably just be seen as a bit odd, and there are plenty of historical figures who are theorized to have been autistic, like Michelangelo, who was famously antisocial.