The Evolution of Intellectual Disability Policy and Administration in Victoria

How did people with intellectual disability move from asylum wards to citizenship rights, and why do older forms of control continue to shape contemporary policy? This book provides the first comprehensive history of intellectual disability policy and administration in Victoria, Australia, from colonial settlement to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Drawing on extensive archival research, unpublished interviews, and rare institutional records, it traces the intertwined histories of institutionalization, reform, deinstitutionalization, and market-based disability support. Combining historical scholarship with policy analysis, it argues that reform is shaped not only by changing values but by policy learning, administrative precedent, and institutional memory.