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“The shot that was heard around the world for people with disabilities,” is how one of Tom Olin’s photographic images has been described. As part of the ADA at 25 Legacy Tour, the Monroe County History Center in Bloomington, Indiana hosted an exhibit…

The supported employment movement, an initiative to expand the opportunities for people with disabilities to find work in their own communities through vocational rehabilitation and ongoing job coaching, began spreading across the United States…

"The initiative on livable communities is one that I was super excited about, because I think to me that's where the disability community should be." Suellen Jackson-Boner discusses the direction that the Indiana Governor's Council for People with…

"When I started in 1977, when people were admitted they brought with them what was called their death bag." The bag contained the clothing that residents of New Castle State Hospital were to be buried in. Sue Beecher recalls her employment at the…

"So you take funding, you take turmoil, you take parents, you take need, and then you had that end of society and their reactions to a person with 'mental retardation'..." When Steve (Stephen L.) Hinkle took on the challenges and leadership of the…

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…

When Ruth Stanley moved to Indiana, she took a job at Fort Wayne State Hospital in 1968. She moved on to Central State Hospital in 1982. Ruth talks about the differences see saw in the two state hospitals. One big difference was the higher turnover…

“This was not just a thing that was going to affect us,” Ric Edwards recalls, “it was going to affect our kids and our kids' kids, and many generations to follow.” The work to win support in Indiana for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act…

"People coming into the business today, I can't imagine them seeing the advancement and the progress that we saw." Randy Krieble talks about witnessing the evolution of institutional custody and control of people with disablities into…

“What I learned is that I had to prove myself constantly, that people with very good intentions just didn’t think I was capable of doing things because of my vision. They wanted to protect me,” says Peter Bisbecos talking about his school…