History, especially oral history, is an important building blocks to culture and community. Until now, disability culture and community didn’t have a lot of history.
Recently, I took part in an impressive interview project called “It’s Our Story,” a collaborative effort to record the histories of 1,000 people in the disability community, across the nation. To date, 928 people have had their stories logged on the web site of Disability Media Initiative, in 98 cities and 148 locations. Their goal is to log 1,000 interviews by July 2010, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
An interviewer, Scott Cooper, was at Courage Center for three days in August, interviewing a variety of local disability rights advocates and leaders. What the experience brought home to me was how important history and role models are to members of a community. As a boomer, I was on the forefront of the disability rights movement. I was one of the first people with a disability to be mainstreamed in the Brooklyn Center School District. There were no role models with disabilities for me to follow back then. Heck, I was amazed to learn, as an adult, that FDR was disabled! So, it’s not surprising that I didn’t want to be labeled as “handicapped” as a kid. I had no real friends who were disabled, other than a few who I met through Camp Courage. My friends with disabilities and my disability advocacy efforts didn’t start until I was working. My self-acceptance as a person with a disability started as an adult and has evolved over time.
Now, through stories of lots of people just like me, kids with disabilities growing up in today’s world will have at least 1,000 role models and stories to guide them to break down their barriers. My peers, those of us who did so much of the hard work that is now benefitting so many people, are full of great wisdom. Here’s to the people, like Scott Cooper, who are helping tell our stories.
I’ve been thinking about your post Sue. Two words related to leadership came up for me while on a walk the other evening: context and communication. Leaders need to provide context for their communities (or teams, or organizations, etc). History does just that. Leaders need to understand the past…not to repeat it…but to understand what has happened before. History informs the present and future and provides a broader understanding and bigger picture.