“IMBECILE”, “idiot” and “lunatic” are words that are thrown around casually as insults these days.

But once upon a time – and sadly not so long ago – these words were legal medical terms, used to describe people with learning disabilities.

Indeed, until 2007 the word ‘idiot’ (former legal definition of a person with an IQ of less than 30) was incorporated into the California Penal Code.

And the UK medical definition of lunacy was only changed to ‘person of unsound mind’ in 1930, to be replaced again in 1959 by the term ‘person with mental illness’.

And if you didn’t know any of this or hadn’t even considered that learning disability had its own history then you’re not alone. Because the history of learning disability – especially the memories recorded by those who have experienced one – is almost non-existent.

But a pioneering project in Bournemouth aims to change all that. Struggle for Equality is an 18-month project which has attracted a £49,700 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to chart the history of life in the area for people with learning disabilities.

It will trace the way mainstream society has treated people with learning disabilities from Victorian times to the present day, alongside world events and changes in the law which affected services. It is being put together by Bournemouth People First, a charity run for and by people with learning disabilities.

Project officer Beccy Garner said it was only in the census of 1851 that households were asked to record disabilities, and only in 1871 that mental disabilities were added. The terms people had to choose from included the demeaning labels “imbecile or idiot” or “lunatic”.

A substantial part of the project will be the experience of large institutions like the Coldharbour hospital at Sherborne, where people from all over Dorset used to be sent. Many also went to Hampshire institutions Tatchbury Mount and Coldeast Hospital, which were the next nearest facilities.

Coldharbour was the scene of a fire in 1972 in which 30 people died. Most of it has been demolished and redeveloped, except for some of the former staff houses.

Caroline Tomes, a project staff member with learning disabilities, has been involved in interviewing former staff and residents of Coldharbour.

“We were talking to them and asking them questions,” she says. “They told us about what happened there – it’s been interesting to see what happens. They weren’t treated the same way as they are today.”

The project will also put the local experience in a world context, with a look at the Nazis’ eugenics programme and the black civil rights movement in the US.

Staff member Amanda Frost said the experience of people with learning disabilities had changed even in her lifetime. She recalled: “People were trying to put me in a special school and write me off. My mum and dad were told ‘Don’t have any hope for Amanda, she won’t work’.

“They used to write people off, put them away like the Royals did with their cousins. Experts were gods and you didn’t challenge them.”

Once completed, Struggle for Equality will tour at least six venues in Dorset for a week each.

It will also be available for training and educational use by Bournemouth People First and other schools and organisations. It will be online at struggleforequality.co.uk