Disability History Month

Disability History Month is an annual, month-long observance of the history of the disability rights movement, and commemoration of the achievements of disabled people, that is recognized officially in four states: Idaho, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Washington. People with disabilities have played a huge role in our history, including Founding Father Stephen Hopkins, who had cerebral palsy, and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was paralyzed from the waist down by polio. Disability History carries stories of pain in the midst of discrimination, from forced sterilizations to abuse. But it also carries the strength and passion of the disability community with such pivotal moments as the Independent Living Movement, the Section 504 Sit-in (the longest sit-in in a federal building in United States history), and the Capitol Crawl. The disability community continues to add to the story from the recent release of Crip Camp and the Disability Visibility book project to the sonification of astronomical data by Wanda Díaz-Merced. For more information, check out A Brief History of Disability: In the United States and Massachusetts, which was published by the Massachusetts Office on Disability in March 2017.