Websites & Links

Art & Culture

10 Remarkable Paintings by Blind and Visually Impaired Artists, Scene 360

Albinism in Popular Culture – The purpose of this site is to explore the mythology of albinism, to take an in-depth look at the various ways in which this unique trait has been perceived and presented.

Art from the Mind’s Eye – Lisa Fittipaldi, blind painter

Arts Unbound – a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide arts education, skills building and a variety of vocational opportunities in the visual arts to youth and adults with mental, developmental and physical disabilities.

Blind Man At Large – A BBC Radio 4 series with journalist Peter White – is typical of White’s wish to challenge any politically correct po-faced patronising around disability. Much to the annoyance of some disabled folk, he likes to play with the idea of blindness.

Breath & Shadow – A Journal of Disability Culture and Literature

Crip Riot – a disabled-owned and led company committed to bringing expressions of disability pride to the world, through unapologetic clothing, media, education and activism.

#CripRitual – A virtual, multi-sited, participatory exhibition of artworks exploring themes of disability culture and ritual

Disabled and Proud – “A celebration of our power, a celebration of our potential, and a celebration of our PRIDE as people with Disabilities”

Ouch – Disability from a fresh angle featuring interviews, discussion and the occasional quiz.

Arts and Disability Forum – Singapore

Neil Marcus, award-winning playwright, actor, poet, and performance artist, has a collection of videos on Vimeo that he has produced.

Picture This – a film festival that celebrates disability culture

Piss on Pity exhibition – An exhibition of disabled artists’ work that reflects the antipathy of the disabled people’s movement towards charity.

Raw Vision Magazine – Magazine covering outsider art.

Ricardo Gil Photography – Ricardo is a dwarf, as his wife, and they are raising their average-size daughter. His photographs document with a frank, tender eye his perspective of the world.

Roaring Girl Productions is a creative media projects company based in Bristol run by Liz Crow, an award-winning disabled filmmaker. She has produced films on Frieda Kahlo and Helen Keller, among other subjects.

VSA Arts – an International organization that creates learning opportunities through the arts for people with disabilities.

Fred’s Head from APH: contains tips, techniques, tutorials, in-depth articles, and resources for and by blind or visually impaired people. On Thursdays, the blog cites an event in blind history.

How we Read: A Sensory History of Books for Blind People – an exhibition of assistive technologies designed to help blind people read.

History of Braille and Education of Blind People

National Federation of the Blind

Blogs

The Angry Gimp – My arms are really strong, whoopadee doo!

aspie rhetor – I am an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan. My academic interests include rhetoric and composition, digital media, and disability studies. I’m autistic, and I protest Autism Speaks walks whenever I can. Here’s a primer on why Autism Speaks = epic fail. I previously served on the ASAN board of directors and currently serve on the board of AutCom.

Blind Insight – my sight wanes; my insight waxes

Crip Chronicles – I am crip, hear me roar, curse, whine and laugh, evilly – Tweaking how people think about disabilities.

Crip Commentary – News and views on disability rights, disability culture, daily life, world events and much more

Disability and Representation – Changing the Cultural Conversation. On this site, Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg shares her reflections on readings, analyzes representations of disability in textual and visual media, and looks at ideas for creating counter-representations that interrupt mainstream narratives.

Disability Law – Periodic updates on developments in disability law and related fields.

Disability Rants – Step in and read some of my trials and tribulations of life as a wheelchair user. Agree, disagree, offer advice, condolences, congratulations, irate responses, laughter, similar experiences… whatever! It’s all welcome!

E. is for Epilepsy – by Paula Apodaca – “There is a lot to say about experiencing E., so my blog isn’t about treatments or surgical techniques. It isn’t a blog to explain E. to you or to showcase the newest drugs for seizure control. It is the beginning of a new way of communicating about epilepsy with an emphasis on the social and cultural elements of epilepsy: discrimination, bigotry, art, literature, history, law and much more.”

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).

A Little Moxie – by Meriah Nichols who describes herself: “I am deaf. I also have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury and was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder not that long ago. … Our daughter Moxie has Down syndrome. Between her and I, disability is a part of our family, much like culture/race is in other families. It’s a part of our story.”

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.

No Pity – A Community for People with Disabilities’ Journal

Not Dead Yet – by Research Analyst Stephen Drake – dealing mainly with issues of assisted suicide and people with disabilities

Tactile the World – journal by Christine Amanda Roschaert who has Usher Syndrome Type I and is deaf-blind.

uppity disability dot net – Disability culture, politics and art, since 1995.

Climate Change

Disability and Climate Change – A Public Archive

Resources on climate change and disability: This collection of resources is full of wisdom from disabled people and allies on how we’re being impacted and how we’re responding to work for disability-led climate justice. This is an evolving collection of resources compiled by Áine Kelly-Costello.

Deaf History and Culture

American School for the Deaf (ASD) is the oldest school for deaf people in the United States and is also the birthplace of American Sign Language (ASL).

Black Deaf Culture Through the Lens of Black Deaf History, Described and Captioned Media Program

British Deaf History Society – celebration of, and promoting, Deaf people’s history.

DeafBlind People in History – from Minnesota’s Online Resource about Combined Vision and Hearing Loss

DeafNation

Deafness – History – from About.com – articles about deaf historic figures, events in deaf history, history of sign language, and links to information about deaf history.

Disability Archives Lab – The Disability Archives Lab investigates the ways that archives and the materials they hold document, shape, and impact disabled people—in history and today.

History Through Deaf Eyes – Gallaudet University is developing a traveling social history exhibition about deaf Americans.

Signs of Development in Deaf South & South-West Asia: histories, cultural identities, resistance to cultural imperialism, M. Miles (West Midlands, UK), Independent Living Institute

Sound and Fury – Deaf history and culture from the Public Broadcasting System (PBS)

Disability Studies

About Disability – maintained by Anthony Tusler, includes the The New Paradigm of Disability – A Bibliography, as well as other resouces.

Canadian Centre on Disability Studies – a consumer-directed, university affiliated centre dedicated to research, education and information dissemination on disability issues.

Centre for Disability Studies – an interdisciplinary centre for teaching and research in the field of disability studies at the University of Leeds (England).

Disability Research Institute – at the College of Applied Life Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Collection – Oral Histories collected by UC Berkeley

H-Disability – H-Disability is a scholarly discussion group that explores the multitude of historical issues surrounding the experience and phenomenon of ‘disability.’

History of Disabilities and Social Problems – by Gary Woodill, represents the results of an extensive library search undertaken in 1987-1988 as part of his research on the history of disabilities and special education.

The Review of Disability Studies – From the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in order to address the need for an internationally-focused academic journal in the field of Disability Studies.

Society for Disability Studies – a nonprofit scientific and educational organization established to promote interdisciplinary research on humanistic and social scientific aspects of disability and chronic illness.

Eugenics

Dismantling Eugenics: Welcome to the Anti-Eugenics Project – by Healing Histories Project

Eugenic Rubicon – This digital resource draws from and complements the demographic and social science research on eugenic sterilization in California being carried out by the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab at the University of Michigan. Working with a unique resource — nearly 50,000 patient records from California institutions from the period 1921 to 1953 — our project seeks to make this history visible.

Eugenics Archives – Image archive on the American Eugenics Movement

Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States, Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont: American eugenics refers inter alia to compulsory sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals. Many of these individuals were sterilized because of a disability: they were mentally disabled or ill, or belonged to socially disadvantaged groups living on the margins of society. American eugenic laws and practices implemented in the first decades of the twentieth century influenced the much larger National Socialist compulsory sterilization program, which between 1934 and 1945 led to approximately 350,000 compulsory sterilizations and was a stepping stone to the Holocaust. Even after the details of the Nazi sterilization program (as well as its role as a precursor to the “Euthanasia” murders) became more widely known after World War II (and which the New York Times had reported on extensively and in great detail even before its implementation in 1934), sterilizations in some American states did not stop. Some states continued to sterilize residents into the 1970s.

Eugenics in California and the World: Race, Class, Gender/Sexuality, and Disability – Virtual Symposium hosted by UC Santa Barbara in June 2021

Forced Sterilization of Disabled People in the United States – as of 2022, most states allow forced sterilization. Laws allowing forced sterilization exist in 31 states plus Washington, D.C.

Sonoma State Hospital – from the 1920s to the 1950s, while under the medical superintendence of Fred O. Butler, Sonoma implemented the most far-reaching eugenic sterilization program in the country, sterilizing more over 5,400 people, many against their wishes.

Sterilization and Social Justice – an interdisciplinary research team studying the history of sterilization in the United States. Our multi-institutional team includes historians, epidemiologists, and digital humanists.

History – General Disability

Against Their Will: North Carolina’s Sterilization Program

American Printing House for the Blind – Museum: Contains the first book for blind people, a collection of mechanical Braille writers, and a web video, “Breaking the Code: A Journey into the Educational History of Blind People,” among other items.

The Berkeley Revolution – A Place for Every Body: A digital archive of the East Bay’s transformation in the late-1960s & 1970s

Berkeley Leads – The Berkeley Historical Society featured this exhibit from April to October 1997 on the history of the disability rights movement, which began in Berkeley, CA, in the 1960s.

Disability History Association – an international non-profit organization that promotes the study of disabilities. This includes, but is not limited to, the history of individuals or groups with disabilities, perspectives on disability, representations/ constructions of disability, policy and practice history, teaching, theory, and Disability and related social and civil rights movements.

Disability History Museum – to promote understanding about the historical experience of people with disabilities by recovering, chronicling, and interpreting their stories.

Disability History New York City – This site is dedicated to the tales, the accomplishments, the leaders and the legends of the disability community in the City of New York. It is a little-known but ever-evolving chronicle as old as the City itself.

Disability Rights Movement – exhibit by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

End of Polio – includes a history timeline of Polio, and black and white photos by Sebastião Salgado

German Disability History – Sebastian Bartsch

German Epilepsy Museum Kork – museum for epilepsy and the history of epilepsy.

H-Disability – a scholarly discussion group that explores the multitude of historical issues surrounding the experience and phenomenon of ‘disability.’ H-Disability was established in response to the growing academic interest and expanding scholarly literature on issues of disability throughout the world.

History of the ADA – history of the Americans with Disabilities Act – from DREDF.

History of Braille – a history of the development of Braille.

A History of Disability: from 1050 to the Present Day (Historic England) – Disability in Time and Place reveals how disabled people’s lives are integral to the heritage all around us. From leper chapels built in the 1100s to protests about accessibility in the 1980s, the built environment is inextricably linked to the stories of disabled people, hidden and well-known.

In Touch with Knowledge – The Educational History of Blind People

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.

Museum of disABILITY HISTORY – dedicated to the collection, preservation and display of artifacts pertaining to the history of people with disabilities. From People-Inc.

Parallels in Time: A History of Developmental Disabilities, from the Minnesota Department of Administration Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities

The Polio History Pages

Polio Oral History Project – In an effort to document the social and cultural history of Polio locally – especially the course, treatment and long-term outcomes of Polio victims – the American West Center at the University of Utah is developing an oral history record of Polio survivors and clinicians who treated Polio.

Public Disability History – Presenting Disability Histories | Disability Histories for the Present

Special Education – the history of special education.

Sterilization and Social Justice Lab – an interdisciplinary research team studying the history of sterilization in the United States. Our multi-institutional team includes historians, epidemiologists, and digital humanists. We explore patterns and experiences of eugenics and sterilization in the 20th century using mixed methods from the social sciences, humanities, and public health.

Talking Back to Psychiatry: Resistant Identities in the Psychiatric Consumer/Survivor/Ex-patient Movement, a PhD dissertation by Linda Joy Morrison, March 2003

Telling All Americans’ Stories: Disability History: Theme Study, National Park Service

The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe, by Ellen Clifford. In 2016, a United Nations report found the UK government culpable for ‘grave and systematic violations’ of disabled people’s rights. Since then, driven by the Tory government’s obsessive drive to slash public spending whilst scapegoating the most disadvantaged in society, the situation for disabled people in Britain has continued to deteriorate. Punitive welfare regimes, the removal of essential support and services, and an ideological regime that seeks to deny disability has resulted in a situation described by the UN as a ‘human catastrophe’.

Institutions

Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance: to promote an understanding of the struggle for dignity and full civil rights for persons with disabilities, using the little-known history at Pennhurst. By sharing this tragic story as well as its landmark victories, we seek to educate citizens in local, national and international communities, to assure that we never go back.

Sonoma Developmental Center: the oldest facility in California established specifically for serving the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities.

LGBTIQA+

Bent – a journal of cripgay voices.

Colin Kennedy Donovan – Radical Queer (Dis)ability Activist and Writer

Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer from Indiana University Press

Queer Crips: Reclaiming Language

Raymond Luczak – Deaf, Gay writer and poet

Media

Articles

Eradicating Ableist Language Yields More-Accurate and More-Humane Journalism, by Marion Renault, The Open Notebook, June 27, 2023

The Long Road to a Brighter Future: Can news and information pave the way to a better life for people with disabilities in China?, Medium, September 16, 2015

Information is Critical for People with Disabilities: Disabled Somalis fight to get their voices heard in a country fraught with challenges, Medium, March 19, 2015

Stuttering in the Newsroom with Pro Publica’s Mariam Elba, Proud Stutter, February 11, 2022

Blogs & websites

Crip Commentary – Laura Hershey’s web column plus Crip Critic, reviewing films with disability themes, and her poetry.

Disability Films – This site presents a detailed list of 2,500 feature films which involve in one way or another various disabilities.

Disability Grapevine – free, online daily newspaper that publishes stories and articles about disability issues.

Disability & Journalism Forum – News UK is proud to launch Britain’s first-ever conference aimed at improving representation of disabled staff in newsrooms across the UK. On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, journalism diversity experts and leading disabled journalists will come together to discuss a variety of topics.

Disability Nation – an audio magazine by and for people with disabilities.

Disability Radio Worldwide – For the first time in history, the experiences of people with disabilities can be heard on radio and Internet around the world.

FilmDis – a media monitoring organization advocating for authentic representation and inclusion of disabled people in front of and behind the lens.

Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment – Media Analysis Study

Images of Disability — The aim of Images of Disability is for disabled people to be included in UK advertising and publicity in the same way that people of various ages, races and genders are.

In Touch — A BBC Radio series with journalist Peter White – News, views and information for people who are blind or partially-sighted.

Media & Disability – Increasing and improving portrayal of people with disabilities in the media (created with support of the European Commission)

National Center on Disability and Journalism – educating to improve fairness, accuracy and diversity of news reporting on disability.

On A Roll – talk radio on life and disability.

Ouch! …it’s a disability thing — Actor Mat Fraser and comedian Liz Carr now have a podcast of their monthly disability talk show.

Ragged Edge magazine – the best in today’s writing and thinking about our most “ragged edge” issues: assisted suicide, long-term care, rights, access.

Voices of Disability, from Refinery29

Nazi Germany & Euthanasia

BBC – Nazi ‘euthanasia’ children buried – More than 800 children, mainly mentally and physically disabled, perished in the Spiegelgrund Children’s Hospital in Vienna during World War II.

eDionysus – Cardinal Clemens von Galen “Against Nazi Euthanasia” – This is an excerpt of the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral, in which he risked his life by openly condemning the Nazi euthanasia program.

Jewish Virtual Library – the T-4 Euthanasia Program

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – The Murder of the Handicapped

Useless Eaters – Disability as Genocidal Marker in Nazi Germany – from Regent University

What Happened Here in the Summer of 1940? – A series of six interrelated short videos by Kenny Fries reading excerpts from his forthcoming book Stumbling over History: Disability and the Holocaust. The readings are supplemented by personal and historical photographs from his visits to the six Aktion T4 killing sites, where disabled people were mass murdered during the Third Reich.

People of Color with Disabilities

Disability and Ex-Slave Narratives – research on how the slaves and their owners dealt with and felt about disabilities that occurred among the slave population.

Howard University and its Disability History – As Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau, General Howard, who sustained a disability from the Civil War, founded the Howard Normal and Theological School for the Education of Teachers and Preachers which became Howard University where he also served as its President and namesake.

In 1936, at the dedication of a new chemistry building on campus, Howard’s first Black President, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson welcomed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a survivor of polio, much of the American public was still not aware of the President as a person with a disability. Through tacit agreements with the press and White House staff, the President’s use of his heavy braces and canes, or the use of his wheelchair were not commonly seen in photographs or in the public arena. For this visit, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, suggested that President Roosevelt dispense with his usual preparations and instead appear without the shroud over the fact of his disability.

Outskirts: Race & Disability
ON THE OUTSKIRTS where you will find the latest news, readings, events of lecturer, poet, essayist, consultant, and activist, Leroy F Moore Jr. Come on in and get the latest scoop on people of color with disabilities through Leroy’s poetry, news articles etc. Go shopping here on Leroy’s merchandise page that contains cds, t. shirts and chapbooks. Find out about how you can obtain Leroy’s services from workshops, performances to consulting and more.

From the Disability History Association:

Museum of Disability History virtual exhibit on disability & the African American experience: https://www.museumofdisability.org/disability-and-the-african-american-experience/

“An Open Letter to the Disability Community on Why Black Lives Matter and Allyship” letter to disability groups about Black Lives Matter

”Ramp Your Voice!” “ an organization dedicated to issues of race and disability

Rooted in Rights, “Race and Disability”

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus

Crowdsourced Disability Studies Readings on the Intersections of Disability & Race

National Disability Institute, Financial Inequality: Disability, Race, and Poverty in America (2019).

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, “COVID-19 in Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups” (2020).

Psychiatric Disabilities

Resources

Accessman – a one stop shop for action alerts, commentary and related resources.

Disabled And Here – a disability-led stock image and interview series celebrating disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC).

International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet – collects and presents best practices in areas related to disability and accessibility issues; collects disability-related Internet resources.

Nursing Home Abuse Center – an informational website committed to providing comprehensive information on nursing home abuse and neglect for the elderly and their loved ones.

Reach And Teach is a peace and social justice learning company dedicated to transforming the world through teachable moments.

Women

Disability Rights International: Women and Girls – DRI fights for women and girls with disabilities – especially those segregated in institutions – who are subjected to egregious human rights abuses.

Disabled Women on the Web – resources, events, and information by and for women with disabilities and their allies.

Gimpgirl Community – Since 1998, GimpGirl Community has been an organization run by women with disabilities to support the lives of others in our community through various forms of Internet technologies. We hold weekly support and empowerment meetings, seminars, and public discussions on topics relevant to our community, all on-line.