Disability Culture
Videos by Neil Marcus
Watch these videos by Neil Marcus, award-winning playwright, actor, poet, and performance artist.
Events
Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability & Diversity – March 26 & 27, 2012 in Honolulu, HI
The Pacific Rim International Conference (Pac Rim) on Disability & Diversity has been widely recognized over the past 27 years as one of the most “diverse gatherings” in the world. The event encourages and respects voices from “diverse” perspective across numerous areas, including: voices from persons representing all disability areas; experiences of family members and supporters across all disability areas; responsiveness to diverse cultural and language differences; evidence of researchers and academics studying disability; stories of persons providing powerful lessons; examples of program providers, natural supports and allies of persons with disabilities and; action plans to meet human and social needs in a globalized world. (More)
News
Laura Hershey, writer, poet, activist , dies November 26, 2010
Writer, poet, feminist, activist— Laura Hershey focused on telling the world that people with disabilities could lead rewarding, useful lives and that they deserved the right to pursue such a lifestyle. Her considerable organizational skills rallied the disability community regularly. (See obituary in the Littleton Independent News). Laura Hershey's memorial page.
Paul S. Miller, Advocate for Disabled, Dies October 19, 2010
"Paul Miller, a lawyer who was born with achondroplasia — dwarfism — overcame discrimination because of his disability and became a leader in the disability rights movement." from a New York Times article on Paul Miller
Disability History Week
A week in October has been designated as Disability History Week to acknowledge the role and contributions of individuals with disabilities in our society. During an established Disability History Week, states will require their public schools to infuse instruction and activities related to disability history into the existing school curriculum. More information about which states have established a Disability History Week.
Paul K. Longmore, leading disability scholar and activist, dies August 9, 2010
 Photo: San Francisco State University |
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Interesting Stuff on the Web
Disability History Images on Flickr:
- Blind man hearing light ( Nationaal Archief)
- Piano for the bedridden ( Nationaal Archief)
- Images from William H. Johnson who was an African-American printmaker who experienced mental illness and was institutionalized for the last twentythree years of his life. (Smithsonian Institution)
- “Harri Bach, Bodedern” - a photograph by John Thomas, c1875, depicting a bearded man using a crutch or cane and a “peg-leg” prosthesis, posted next to a donkey cart in the street. (National Library of Wales)
H-Madness is intended as a resource for scholars interested in the history of madness, mental illness and their treatment (including the history of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and clinical psychology and social work).
It's Our Story – a national initiative to make disability history public and accessible – over 1,000 video interviews from disability leaders across the country.
Polio Oral History Project - the American West Center at the University of Utah is developing an oral history record of Polio survivors and clinicians who treated Polio.
Disability History Week Campaign - from YO! Youth Organizing Disabled and Proud
Listen to Ever Lee Hairston's speech at the conference of the National Federation of the Blind of California in October 2009
My Whole Expanse I Cannot See… – the blog of Michael Phillips, a writer from Tampa, FL. who doesn’t walk nor breathe without the assistance of machines.
Books and Articles on Disability History
Haller, Beth. Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media. Advocado Press, 2010.
The Encyclopedia of American Disability History, Authored by Susan Burch, Ph.D., Foreword by Paul K. Longmore, Ph.D. – Like race and gender, disability has recently become a critical field of study in examining our nation’s heritage.
Seeing Beyond Sight, by Tony Deifell — photographs by blind teenagers — "What are you thinking, teaching photography to blind people?"
Faces of War, Smithsonian Magazine, February 2007 – Wounded tommies facetiously called it "The Tin Noses Shop." Located within the 3rd London General Hospital, its proper name was the "Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department"; either way, it represented one of the many acts of desperate improvisation borne of the Great War, which had overwhelmed all conventional strategies for dealing with trauma to body, mind and soul.
Make them go away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve and The Case Against Disability Rights by Mary Johnson, Advocado Press, 2003
Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability by Paul Longmore, Temple Press, 2003
Silence is a four-letter word: On art and deafness by Raymond Luczak, The Tactile Mind Press, 2003
"The Political Economy of Disablement: Advances and Contradictions," by Marta Russell and Ravi Malhotra, from the Socialist Register 2002
The New Disability History : American Perspectives (History of Disability) by Paul Longmore and Lauri Umanksy (eds.)
The Disability Rights Movement : From Charity to Confrontation by Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames
Video
Disabled Women: Visions and Voices from the 4th World Conference on Women
Disability Projects on the Web
Education for Disability and Gender Equity, a high school curriculum incorporating disability and gender issues into humanities and science
THE CHAIR: Holocaust Memorial to Disabled People
"With our hearts let us see, with your hands let us break every
chain. Then, indeed, shall we know a better and nobler humanity."
- Helen Keller
"Disability is not a 'brave struggle' or 'courage in the face of
adversity'... disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live."
- Neil Marcus
