About

The purpose of the Indiana Disability History Project is to document and preserve the memories and experiences of Hoosiers with disabilities, highlighting historic developments in the disability rights movement. The Project is using video, audio, and digital technology to raise awareness of the contributions of movement leaders and pioneers as well as people trying to live ordinary lives. These advocates include both Hoosiers with disabilities and their supporters. They are community activists, family members, educators, professional service providers, public officials, and legislators.

This website offers online exhibits created around the Indiana Disability History Project’s collection of oral history interviews in video format, with accompanying transcripts, descriptive data, and historical background information. This first-hand testimony illuminates the role of advocacy, and resulting changes in public policy, in the evolution of service provision and cultural attitudes towards people with disabilities.

The Center for Health Equity (formerly the Center on Aging and Community) at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community has undertaken this project, with support from the Indiana Governor's Council for People with Disabilities and Indiana Disability Rights. We are grateful to our interviewees for their valuable participation, and to those who have contributed information, photographs, documents, and expertise.

We encourage you to share your own stories and reflections about our state’s disability history online on the Indiana Disability History Project Facebook page.

Take a Video Tour of the Website

Contact Us

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Sponsoring Organizations

The mission of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University is to work with communities to welcome, value, and support the meaningful participation of people of all ages and abilities through research, education, and service.

The Indiana Governor's Council for People with Disabilities is an independent state agency that promotes changes in public policy leading to the independence, productivity, and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. The Council is consumer-driven and is charged with determining how the service delivery system in both the public and private sectors can be most responsive to people with disabilities.

Partner Organization

Indiana Disability Rights was created in 1977 by state law to protect and advocate the rights of people with disabilities. It is Indiana's federally designated Protection and Advocacy system and client assistance program.