Abstract
The post-World War Two boom period in Australia was a time of economic and social transition that saw the expansion of educational opportunities for its citizens. While historical evaluations of Australian education have contributed to our understanding of this era the experiences of children with disabilities and their families has been a neglected area. Children with disabilities, and their inclusion, exclusion and segregation within the Queensland and Australian schooling context have been largely by-passed by historians. The dominant model for exploring disability has been the medical model however this paper largely eschews that model and argues for the use of a more critical social model of disability to investigate the integration and exclusion of children with disabilities in Queensland Schools from 1945-1973. This paper will challenge the Australian and Queensland disability and education historiography through exploring disability beyond the prevailing impairment and institutional orthodoxies and exclusionary frameworks instilled in most disability histories. Instead this paper will offer an alternative argument which seeks to establish that disability is not static or ahistorical; on the contrary there are a range ofdisabled experiences to be explored.