Documenting Disability History Project - News Release
On October 10, 2024, Mass Humanities awarded the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) a grant to document the history of people with disabilities across the state of Massachusetts.
According to Sandy Novack, the Vice President of the DPC Board of Directors, not many people with disabilities show up in history books. DPC wants to change that by documenting as much as possible the lives of people with disabilities in Massachusetts so that future generations will have role models, not feel as isolated with their disabilities as many feel now, and learn how others have or have not handled life's challenges. People with disabilities and able-bodied people can get exposure to the variety of disabilities people can have, and all the ways that people with disabilities have lived that have not been documented.
Everyone has a life story to tell, their own as a person with disability, or maybe as a parent who wants to document raising a child with a disability. Maybe you lived, or worked, at an existing or now defunct institution for people with disabilities and want to tell the story of life in the institution. No story is insignificant. We want to collect stories the best way you can tell them, whether writing essays, a chapter in a book, a whole book or poetry, a graphic novel; or maybe tell your story through photographs, painting, audio, video. We want there to be no barrier to participating and telling your story, no matter how small or large you want your part of the history project to be, your participation is important to this project and we will be creative to help you tell your story. Your story matters.
The means is exciting, but just as important is the fact that we are documenting our lives with disabilities, and creating a library of resources not only for DPC, but for departments of disability studies at colleges where students should learn from the disability community, and for libraries in general, newspapers, and online and social media. If you are new to dealing with disability, or just want to learn how others have lived their lives with disabilities, the stories we gather will educate, inspire, sadden, and otherwise touch all who get to read, view and listen to our many stories.
Tell us what is most meaningful for you tell—such as what it is like to date
with a disability, go to school with a disability, housing with a disability, health care and disability, the work world with a disability, exercise and disability, transportation and disability. There are an endless number of topics you could write about or otherwise document. Whatever you have experienced as a person with a disability is significant and deserves to be shared with others who can learn from your life, such as perhaps your advocacy, your failures and your wins, your attitude toward disability, and your efforts in balancing it all the best you can.
To participate in this documenting disability history project: You must live, study, or work in any part of Massachusetts, or have done so at some part of your life as the person with a disability. We are trying to recruit volunteers to help people document their story if, for example, their disability makes it difficult or not possible to document their story without someone's assistance; let us know what assistance you may need and we will work with you on getting your story told. We aim to help you tell any story of your life that you want to tell the world about living with a disability.
To let us know you will be working on documenting a life story so we may cheer you on and work with you, to ask a question and learn more, or ask for assistance to tell your story, and to apply to volunteer to help others tell their stories, please email Sandy Novack at the DPC Documenting Disability History Project at: disabilityhistory@dpcma.org or call the Disability Policy Consortium at 617 307-7775 and say you would like Sandy Novack to call you back.
DPC is located at 25 Kingston Street, 4th floor, Boston, MA 02111.