Every unit of the Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum includes an introduction to the topic of disability, including strategies to address disrespectful vocabulary. 

Explore the First Amendment free speech rights
of students...through analysis of Supreme Court decisions.

Students will practice summarizing interpretations of Freedoms of Speech under
the First Amendment.

This lesson has a sharable ready-made album of primary sources with an introduction essay by the author!

“I Can’t Even Get To The Back of the Bus” – Disability, 504 and the Power of Protest

This lesson investigates why and how people take action to make a difference. Building from an inquiry-based RAN chart, the lesson explores the context of the 1977 protests calling on the Federal Government to actually implement 504 access legislation. Featuring a variety of primary sources, including testimony of activist Ed Roberts.   

Organizing a rich text set of primary sources requires that students analyze and make sense of several sources on a topic. In this case, they seek to answer a focused guiding question. Students sort through about a dozen images, letters, forms, and political cartoon. In practice, a teacher could offer fewer sources, though it is a valuable sometimes to require students to choose among sources. The primary sources are also give context by a secondary source narrative from the Veterans Administration. 

Wendy Harris, a teacher at Metro Deaf School in St.

Tutan(not-so)khamun

King Tutankhamun was a pharaoh who became a leader at age 9. His tomb is a rich source of art and information about the time in which he lived. He was also a leader with a physical disability.

Teachers strive to engage all learners. A 'best practice' is to create multiple ways for students to communicate what they need, and multiple ways to check in to see how students are learning. Simple online survey tools can provide an avenue for students to communicate how they are doing. 

Disability History: From Almshouses to Civil Rights

UPDATED IN 2020. The following primary source set, created using materials from the Library of Congress, contains an array of sources focused on Disability History in the United States. Disability has been interwoven into America’s history since the country’s inception through letters, images, newspapers, diaries and other primary sources. The set provides a comprehensive look into a wide range of Library of Congress resources.