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The first Special Olympics games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1968. Athletes from the United States, Canada and France participated in the games. In 1969, a group of volunteers organized the first Special Olympics Indiana games in…

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…

This photograph shows a group in front of the ADA Legacy Tour bus in Monticello, Indiana on June 20, 2015. The Monticello tour stop, at Indiana University Health White Memorial Hospital, was hosted by the Mayor’s ADA Advisory Council and the City of…

"Distressed" and "oppressed," is how Tony and Connie Blair describe the city of Gary and the Northwest Indiana region where the Blind Social Center is located. They founded the center in 2014 after Mr. Blair, a general contractor, lost his eyesight…

"I expected to go out of there feet first... I was just like the clients, I had been there my whole life. How could I function on the outside?" Sarah Poole started working as an attendant at Muscatatuck State Developmental Center in 1968. She soon…

The Multivoice Synthesizer was used with a computer screenreader, producing the sound needed to convert text into synthesized speech for people with visual impairments. A screen reader is a software application that, rather than presenting web…

Residents of Muscatatuck State Developmental Center were buried in an area adjacent to a non-institutional cemetery in Butlerville, Indiana. This photograph was taken by Seth Musselman, probably in 2009. Muscatatuck State Developmental Center…

"We had three boys and five girls and they literally thought they owned the place." Ann Bishop came to Muscatatuck in September of 1954. She started as a head nurse, became assistant director of nursing, and then was a module director/mental health…

"Even before we started to school we used to go to Muscatatuck. My daddy played baseball... we’d have a picnic after the ball game and they played ball to entertain the patients out there." Belma Eberts' memories of Muscatatuck start in the 1920s…

"That was about the same time things were really starting to change. I felt like I was actually being part of a system that was on its way up." Cindie Underwood came to Muscatatuck State Developmental Center in 1989 as a case manager. Over the years…