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“You don’t have the right to deny them the opportunity to try this.” Mary Lou Melloy's daughter, Cindy, was born in 1958. Doctors told the family they should put Cindy in a residential facility. Mary Lou and her husband, Don, had other plans for…

"I'm one who has educational conversations about dwarfism with the world." In this excerpt from a 2017 interview, Columbus, Indiana resident Ethan Crough discusses the portrayal of people with dwarfism in popular media, depictions that have…

"We didn't want a nursing home saying, we are a Center for Independent Living, we're eligible for that money." David Nelson talks about the establishment of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) in Indiana. He describes a successful effort in Indiana…

"We didn't want a nursing home saying, we are a Center for Independent Living, we're eligible for that money." David Nelson talks about the establishment of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) in Indiana. He describes a successful effort in Indiana…

Nowana Schroeder joined the staff of the Developmental Training Center (D.T.C.) in 1975. (The D.T.C., at Indiana University in Bloomington, is now known as the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.) Then Nowana Nicholson, she had a…

Sandy Braunbeck grew up with an agency serving people with disabilities in southern Indiana. Now known as Rauch, Inc., it was founded in New Albany in 1953. Her father, George "Tooter" Tinius, worked at Rauch and her brothers helped with the summer…

Mike Morton worked in Indiana state government for 20 years. In the late 1970s, after the legislature passed the Family Subsidy law, he was responsible for defining family subsidy, which included respite services. The Indiana Governor’s Council for…

A little over 30 years ago, a doctor told Sharon Hauss to put her infant son in an institution. Sharon’s response, “He’s my son. I couldn’t do it.” Her son, Michael Ely, went on to be fully included in school. Using part of a script he wrote for the…

This document presents the highlights of state and national events related to people with disabilities in Indiana from 1816 to 2017.

“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…