[2] DIG was founded in 1965 by two "housewives" as known at the time,[3] when Megan du Boisson and Berit Moore wrote a letter to The Guardian newspaper on 22 March 1965.
[5] At the time, social security payments to disabled people depended on the previous cause of impairment.
People injured in war or in the workplace were entitled to significantly more support than the "civilian" disabled.
This campaign and other events such as the thalidomide scandal led to the creation of a series of new social security benefits in the 1970s.
For this reason, many consider DIG to represent one of the key organisations in the beginnings of the modern disability movement in the United Kingdom.