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"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…

"At that time, supported employment was just beginning across this country" and the goal was "to show that this was very viable, that people with severe disabilities could actually work." Suellen Jackson-Boner, the Indiana Governor's Council for…

Dr. Sue Gant has 40 plus years of working in the disability field. As an expert with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation, Dr. Gant spent the late 1990s through 2008 in Indiana assisting with the closure of New…

"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…

“In terms of children being admitted, I assisted with some admissions of children. I’m not proud of that,” states Sue Beecher. In the late 1970s, Sue worked in the outpatient clinic at New Castle State Hospital and assisted with placing children…

“I came back on Monday and one of the clients had a broken limb and nobody knew how it had occurred,” explains Sue Beecher of a visit to Muscatatuck State Developmental Center. In 1998, Sue was working for Indiana Protection & Advocacy and was…

"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…

A member of the Fort Wayne neighborhood association where a new group home was going in telephoned Steve Hinkle. "'You know,' he said, 'just three houses down the road, there's a Cadillac that sits in a driveway.' And I said 'Well, I think that's…

"I must be completely honest - I was not the first person to introduce the Americans with Disabilities Act," retired U.S. Senator Tom Harkin pointed out in an interview with the Indiana Disability History Project. In fact, Senator Harkin had been one…

“We’re out there advocating for people, and speaking up for people, and speaking up for what we want for our lives every day," explained Self-Advocates of Indiana (SAI) President Betty Williams. In this video produced in 2007, SAI members shared why…