| | Smithsonian Disability Exhibit In case you haven't already heard, the online exhibit, Everybody: An Artifact History of Disability in America from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History is excellent. The exhibit chronicles our progress towards civil rights, beginning with disabled veteran and parent organizations, moving through ADAPT and Not Dead Yet, with a section devoted to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Standing next to the Woolworth's lunch counter which was used in the famous 1960s sit-in to gain African American civil rights, the exhibit's placement firmly frames ours as a civil rights struggle, not a medical problem. A t-shirt reads, "Same struggle, different difference." Speaking at a press conference, White House disability liaison Jonathan Young noted that "there's an assumption that physical characteristics make a person inherently inferior." The exhibit was a physical exhibit at one time, but is now found solely online. Also be sure to see the Disability History Museum, a virtual, searchable library, curricula and museum exhibits designed to foster research and study about the historical experinces of people with disabilities and their communities. |
