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"If you've ever seen the movie 'Forrest Gump', my mom was kind of like Forrest's mom." Andy Imlay was born with cerebral palsy in 1979, but his mom made sure he had the same opportunities as a child without disabilities. In the 1980s, Andy was…

“Back in the '80s, we didn't think about the Independent Living movement being a civil rights thing.” With the introduction of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislation prior to its passage in 1990, says Al Tolbert, “the Independent Living…

“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…

Thomas Hancock, age 10 months, with nurse at General Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, October 1946. Thomas entered Muscatatuck State School in 1951, living there until he died in 1981.

"Our society told parents at that time, they’re retarded, you don’t want them at home, stick them in an institution, forget that they were born." Three interviewees who worked as staff at Muscatatuck and New Castle State Hospitals in the 1960s and…

In this black and white photograph, Theodore Helping of Indianapolis displays his leather portfolio that won a 1st Prize award at the 1933 State Fair. Fourteen year-old Theodore is wearing a tie and is in a wheelchair. He had been a patient in the…

The Sweetest Little Boy I Ever Knew: A Handmade History for an Institutional Life tells the story of a baby orphaned with disabilities in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of World War II. Despite the loving effort of Edith Mumpower, an older woman who…

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…

"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…

"She shouldn't have to be put on a bus and spend 45 minutes on a bus one way to go to school," explains Pat Howey of her daughter's experience at six years old being sent to a school for children with physical disabilities. Pat discusses her…