Browse Items

"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…

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…

"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…

This 2017 painting by Deaf artist Warren Miller shows William Willard (1809-1888), an important figure in Indiana disability history. In 1843, the Willard School, known today as the Indiana School for the Deaf, opened in Indianapolis with 12…

"He slammed the paper on the principal's table and he says 'Don't tell me that this child is retarded - look at what she's done.'" As a child in Hammond, Indiana, Andrea Pepler-Murray had been placed in segregated special education classes. It took…

"Lights Out!" at the Indiana State School for The Blind didn't deter Byron Smith from his love of reading. He entered the Indianapolis school as a seven-year-old in 1951. He had recently lost his vision due to due to congenital glaucoma. In this…

This 1961 photograph shows 16 year-old Byron Smith, a student at University High School in Bloomington, Indiana, surrounded by members of Indiana University's Delta Gamma sorority. Because of his visual impairment, Byron received help with his school…

"It's been a real adventure, but he just was thrown in the mix with his three brothers." Al and Linda Hublar talk about the lack of support and resources available when their son Mark was born with Down syndrome in the 1960s. They have made a point…

"Customers come up to me and they'll talk to me like they've known me for years." Cori Mitchell loves her job at a movie theater. As a high school senior in Colorado she was left with a head injury from an automobile accident. Soon after, in 1989,…

"We were asking teachers to do some things they had not done before, to interact and support and teach kids that they didn't have a lot of experience doing in the past." An educator and a parent discuss the beginnings of integration of students with…