Invisible Cultures: Discovering the Hidden History of People with Disabilities
Presented by: Barbara Floyd, Kimberly Brownlee, Arjun Sabharwa, from the Ward M. Canady Center for Special Collections at the University of Toledo
The Ability Center of Greater Toledo donated $1.9 million to create a Disability Studies Program at the University of Toledo. Out of this has grown an exhibit: “From Institutions to Independence: A History of People with Disabilities in Northwest Ohio.” Most program includes the records are of organizations, such as the Rotary Club, but there are exceptions, such as papers of Hugh Gregory Gallagher, author of Black Bird Fly Away: Disabled in Able-Bodied World and Alva Bunker, who was born without hands or feet. Other outgrowths of this Program and Collection include the placement of a historical marker at the cemetery where a mental health facility once stood, for example.
Discussion centered on means of Web accessibility, collection accessibility and HIPAA issues regarding past and future collections, questions and issues that could be applied to many collections, not just those that are devoted to the study of organizations centered on disability rights or assistance or people with disabilities.
