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This is a photograph of U.S. President John F. Kennedy meeting with the Panel on Mental Retardation in the Fish Room at the White House on October 16, 1962.
Credit: Abbie Rowe, National Park Service / John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and…

This video is an overview of 200 years of change in the lives of Hoosiers with disabilities, produced by the Indiana Disability History Project. A very broad survey starting in the 19th century, the short video highlights the role of advocacy in…

“I learned that there were more than just rights," recalled disability advocate Karen Vaughn of the era immediately after passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). "We had civil rights on just about every level.” After acquiring a…

“When I was young I knew nothing about any legislative activities or laws that would allow an individual with a disability to have any kind of civil rights because I stayed in several nursing homes and at that time, there were no patients' rights,”…

“It changed my life,” explains Karen Vaughn of her experience going through Partners in Policymaking in 1992. A leadership training program for adults with disabilities and parents, Partners in Policymaking had been recently initiated by the Indiana…

“We have an opinion and it matters,” states Kelsey Cowley. Unfortunately, Kelsey didn’t feel many people listened to her during her school years. She says, “They just didn’t understand people with disabilities to the whole extent.” As President of…

“The day for the kids was pretty packed.” Kim Davis recalls the 1970s, when school aged children with challenging behaviors stayed at the Developmental Training Center (Now the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community) in Bloomington during the…

Kylee Hope was Director of Indiana's Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviewed shortly after that period, when she had recently retired from her position, she provides an…

New digital media have opened a creative landscape "where it's not someone else speaking on behalf of the person with the disability - you don't have the teachers or the preachers and the social workers pushing the agenda." Lawrence Carter-Long, a…

"There's a new crop of people that are saying, wait a minute, I'm not ashamed of anything. I don't need to distance myself from anything. In fact, I am a disabled person first." In this interview, Lawrence Carter-Long discusses his views on the…