Institute on Disabilities
Temple University

SOCIAL HISTORY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

· 504 Sit-in 20th Anniversary, June 1, 1977 - June 1, 1997
http://www.dredf.org/504/history.html
Articles and eyewitness accounts: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was signed by President Nixon. For persons with disabilities, Section 504 was critical.  It prohibited programs receiving federal funds from discriminating against individuals with disabilities who were otherwise qualified to perform the functions of the job.  In order for Section 504 to be implemented, regulations needed to be promulgated by the department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).  Disability activists, waiting in vain for the regulations, finally took matters into their own hands and protested at HEW offices in Washington D.C., Eugene, Oregon, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during the spring of 1977. The San Francisco sit-in took nearly a month, until finally the regulations were released.

  NPR Takes of 25th Anniversary Look Back at 'Section 504' (June 1, 2002)
http://www.npr.org/programs/wesun/features/2002/504
Videos, radio interviews, and photographs of the San Franciso protests.

· Archives and Library on Disability at the University of Colorado, http://www.cusys.edu/ColemanInstitute/archives

The purpose of the library is to acquire, catalogue, and preserve print and non-print materials on the history of disability. The collection presently contains over 20,000 books, monographs, journals, and non-print materials in three areas of study: Mental Disability, Physical and Sensory Disability, and General Disability Studies.

· Disability History Museum, http://www.disabilitymuseum.org
The Disability History Museum is sponsored by Straight Ahead Pictures, Inc., a 501-C-3 organization whose mission is to create innovative media projects and educational forums that use archival materials and oral history to foster community dialog about contemporary social issues. At present, only the Disability History Library is available on the site.

· Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement, http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm

This website is hosted by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Explore their rich collection of primary sources covering the social and political history of the disability movement from the 1960s to the present. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come." For people with disabilities, the urge for freedom has arrived. The story of how this happened—a vital part of American history—is preserved in the oral histories, with audio and video clips, and in the archival papers of this collection.

· Disability Social History Project, http://www.disabilityhistory.org
Resources in disability history and culture, created and managed by Stephen Dias & Patricia Chadwick.
"The Disability History Project is a community history project. This is an opportunity for disabled people to reclaim our history and determine how we want to define ourselves and our struggles. People with disabilities have an exciting and rich history that should be shared with the world."

· Gallaudet University Deaf President Now Anniversary Page, http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/DPN
Introduction: "Ten years ago, Gallaudet University was the site of a student-led protest that today is called Deaf President Now, or simply, DPN. But DPN was more than a protest. It also was a unique coming together of Gallaudet students, faculty and staff with the national deaf community—all bound by clear and defined goals.  The DPN supporters believed that the time had come for a deaf person to run the world's only university for deaf and hard of hearing students. When this didn't happen, the result was a protest whose effects are still reverberating around the world today."

· Museum of disABILITY HISTORY
http://www.people-inc.org/museum
The Museum of disABILITY HISTORY is dedicated to the collection, preservation and display of artifacts pertaining to the history of people with disabilities. Located in Buffalo, New York, and on the World Wide Web, the museum offers educational exhibits and activities that expand community awareness.  Presented by People Inc., a non-profit human services agency serving people with special needs, seniors and their families in Western New York. Their emphasis appears to be on developmental disabilities.

· Resources on the History of Idiocy, http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~mksimpso

A bibliographic and text resource base for people interested in the history of ‘idiocy,’ a concept that has evolved over the years and achieved a wide terminological range. The site was compiled by Dr. Murray K. Simpson of the Department of Social Work at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland.

· Virtual Exhibition on the Disability Rights Movement
http://americanhistory.si.edu/disabilityrights
at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

Copyright (C), 2006
Institute on Disabilities
Temple University

This listing is provided for informational purposes only. This list of sites represents only a sample of those available and should by no means be taken as complete or comprehensive. All sites listed have been reviewed for type and quality of content. However, as some sites are extensive and usually contain links to related sites, they may contain some information not specifically endorsed by the Institute on Disabilities.