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Ed Roberts, a smiling man with dark hair and beard is strapped into his wheelchair. He is speaking into a microphone.
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The Struggle for Disability Rights: From Objects of Reform to Advocates for Equality Published in the National History Day 2026 Theme Book   Overview article on disability history for teachers and secondary students.

Download the summary article on disability history. 

We are proud to share this excellent overview summary of disability history!

Lynne O'Hara from…

A painting shows Abraham Lincoln seated at a cluttered desk, with a pen and paper speaking with Frederick Douglass, standing, as two cabinet members watch.
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In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

A newspaper photograph shows dozens of members of the League of the Physically Handicapped in around a truck that they drove from New York to Washington to demand access to WPA jobs.
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Inclusive History News In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

Inaccessible curb, mid-20th century. A wheelchair is rolled right up to the edge.
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Inclusive History News In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

April featured lesson: Disabled veterans advocated for access to legal services and won the first curb cut in Kalamazoo in 1945. How can this story spark student curi…
A man with white hair and a jacket walks with a cane - his reflection appears in the glass of the T4 memorial
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“Completely Healthy Children” - The Persistence of Disabled Children and Their Allies During Aktion T4 and the Holocaust By Wyatt Edwards

In Mikaël Ross’s graphic novel The Thud, the main character Noel, who has a developmental disability and has just arrived at a care facility in Germany, learns from an older woman named Irma about how her brother once told her the story of how the buses cam…

A diverse group of ADAPT activist surround a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. The activists are young and old, black and white, ambulatory and wheelchair users. The group is gathered around the base of the statue, most of them are sitting around it in a clump. Other activists in the background are at the entrance of a building, showing the lack of accessibility to wheelchair users via the building's steps.
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Inclusive History News In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

March featured blog: "Completely Healthy Children:" The Persistence of Disabled Children and Their Allies During Aktion T4 and the Holocaust - by Wyatt Edwards…
Eugenists would improve human stock by blotting out blood taints. Menaces to society. Images show adults with developmental disabilities and claims their "mental" ages range from 6 to 8. Text from the news article argues for examining couples prior to marriage and sterilizing those deemed "unfit".
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The Dehumanizing Effects of Eugenics: Disability History Lesson Plan By Rich Cairn 

The engravings on the right of two young women are haunting. Aside from the clothing, these faces could easily be high school or college students today. Yet these images appeared in the New York Tribune in 1912 under the headline, “Eugenists Would Improve Human Stock by Blotting Out Blood Taints,” with th…

Eugenists would improve human stock by blotting out blood taints. Menaces to society. Images show adults with developmental disabilities and claims their "mental" ages range from 6 to 8. Text from the news article argues for examining couples prior to marriage and sterilizing those deemed "unfit".
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Inclusive History News In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

February Featured Blog Post - Eugenics: Teaching Agency and the Roots of Genocide - including lesson from Reform to Equal Rights

 

Photos of civil rights leaders across the centuries. List at bottom of page.
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Inclusive History News In this Issue: News of the Field Disability History News & Resources Events @ Emerging America  Other Professional Development Events Teaching Resources  New at the Library of Congress 

 

January Featured Blog Post - Primary Sources: Demonstrating the Power of the Community - "Whose Independence," a lesson by Cheryl-Anne Amendol…

A slide with instructions from the lesson on the Disabled People’s Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence
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Teaching About the Disabled People’s Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence By CherylAnne Amendola

"Whose Independence?" 5th grade lesson features reflections of the U.S. Declaration, including the 1989 Disabled People's Bill of Rights & Declaration of Independence - Cheryl Anne Amendola - National Middle Level Social Studies Teacher of the Year 2023. Link to slides from the…