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Betty Williams, an active self-advocate, discusses the importance of getting rid of the R-word and shares the story of how self-advocates helped change the name of the state commission in 2008.Betty was interviewed October, 2016.

"I fell through the cracks bad," describes Karen Ricci of her school experience in the '70s and '80s. Karen discusses her challenges in school, such as teachers not having the training to adapt curriculum. Despite the challenges, Karen did go to…

Kathy Christoff and Bill Gilkey talk about the changes they have seen in Indiana mental health services since the 1960s. They discuss the development of mental health centers, improvements in medications, and the success of employment programs.…

"Advocating for disability issues is a broad topic. And when you advocate, you don’t advocate for people with a particular disability, your advocacy affects everyone with a disability,” Christine Dahlberg remarked in 2009. Then Deputy Director of the…

"After the regulations passed, there was a big infusion of federal dollars to train people, mainly people with disabilities and other advocates on their rights, their new rights under the ADA," explains Christine Dahlberg. The Disability Rights…

“We actually heard from a number of different people in a lot of different communities,” explains Ric Edwards of the town meetings held when Justin Dart visited Indiana. Christine Dahlberg discusses the Indiana Governor's Council for People with…

"We have been omitted for such a long time. It's as if we don't matter," observes Gary resident Tony Blair. Like other people of color with disabilities, he is a member of multiple minoritized communities. The concept of intersectionality was…

“I haven't really seen progression in supported employment since the 1990s,” recalls Connie Ferrell. She was hired as a field coordinator for the new Indiana Employment Initiative in 1992. In her 2015 interview, Connie explains why she feels…

“To be part of that and to watch the leadership and those agencies catch fire…" Connie Ferrell recalls the excitement of introducing supported employment to Indiana in the early 1990s. "At the time they were doing it, it was like heresy. And they had…

"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,…