Resources for Teaching Disability History and Human Rights from the Virtual Conference 

April 7, 2026 - 5:00-7:30 pm Eastern Time - Second Annual

Conference transcript. 

"Yes! I'm looking forward to it. The agenda looks great! We've had so much interest from students in the last few years in disability history during our Civil Rights unit, I really appreciate any insight and resources I can have presented to me and not have to find myself ;) See you next week!" - Catherine Glennon, Teacher, Mohawk Trails Regional High School

• Share ideas and challenges and meet colleagues from across the U.S. 
• K-12 teachers, instructors of pre-service teachers, disability historians, disability studies educators, and disability rights advocates from across the U.S. will meet online to discuss ways to expand and strengthen the teaching of stories of disability history in K-12 schools. 
• Access a wealth of K-12 curriculum from across the U.S. 
• Free thanks to a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program. But you must register. THIS EVENT HAS PASSED. 
• ASL and CART closed captioning provided. 
• Check back to this web page. We will add details and resources. 

Register for the July 9 Teaching Disability History Conference on the campus of Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. 

 

April 7 Conference Program

5:00    Keynote: The Human Rights Imperative for Disability - Hezzy Smith, Director of Advocacy Initiatives, Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
5:30    1990 Americans with Disabilities Act: Landmark for Disability and Human Rights - Hope Bibens, Harkin Institute, Director of Archives & Special Collections, Drake University Cowles Library. (Senator Tom Harkin was chief author of the ADA.) 
6:00    Teaching Intersectional Disability History and Human Rights - Tia Hinz, Teacher & Sarah Wiederecht, Teacher - Human Rights Educators USA.  
6:30    Discussion with the Producer of the Film: “How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law” - Jill Rosenbaum, Producer, RetroReport.
7:00    Impacts of Integrating Disability History into Teacher Education - Lance Neeper, Keene State College; Nancy Peck, Keene State College; and Darren Minarik, Radford University. 
7:20    Sharing curriculum, resources for student research and primary sources - Rich Cairn, Emerging America & Graham Warder, Professor of History, Keene State College (Emerging America Team).

Preparation

Consider previewing: 

• The 12-minute film, “How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law,” from RetroReport. 
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - United Nations. 

 

Resources on Disability History and Human Rights

(Watch for further additions, including links to the recordings after Tuesday's conference.) 

 

Hezzy Smith, International Disability Rights Lawyer, Harvard Law School

• Accountability for Mass Institutionalization of Persons with Disabilities. (June 16, 2025). Hezzy Smith, Harvard Law School Project on Disability. 
• Persons with Disabilities in Armed Conflict - International Review of the Red Cross. (November, 2022). 

 

    Themes related to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: 

• Legal capacity

  • Guest blog post on how U.S. youth with intellectual disabilities are raising awareness of alternatives to guardianship. 
  • Blog post on supported decision-making in the U.S. 
  • Harvard Law Review blog post on supported decision-making and the ADA - In both traditional and Easy read formats.  

• Political participation

  • Blog post on barriers faced by U.S. voters with disabilities. 
  • Policy brief on persons with intellectual disabilities’ right to vote - In traditional and Easy read formats. 
  • Event recording on the rights of U.S. voters with intellectual disabilities. 
  • Guest blog post on voters with intellectual disabilities’ rights. 

• Community living

  • Event recap and recording on the impact of Medicaid cuts. 
  • Bill of Health blog post on the impact of Medicaid cuts. 
  • Companion blog posts on changes in 2025 to longstanding U.S. disability laws and policies. 
  • First blog post on changes in 2025 to longstanding U.S. disability laws and policies.
  • Second blog post on changes in 2025 to longstanding U.S. disability laws and policies.
  • Event recap and recording on the history of state disability institutions. 
     

RetroReport Films on Disability History

• How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law
• Walter Reed: The Battle for Recovery - on disabled veterans
• Special Education: The 50-Year Fights for the Right to Learn 
• Lobotomy: A Dangerous Fad’s Lingering Effects on Mental Illness Treatment

 

Human Rights Education Resources

• Human Rights Educators USA. Become a member of HRE USA. 
  • Human Rights. Yes! Box Set of 5 (free after shipping & handling!) -comprehensive human rights curriculum on the rights of persons with disabilities developed by leading experts in the fields of disability rights, international human rights law, human rights education, and grassroots advocacy. Explores the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - Human Rights Educators USA. 
  • Human Rights and Disability YES! training manual. (You may download–as a very large PDF.) 
  • Films on disability and human rights from HRE. 
• Teaching disability and human rights, from teacher Sarah Wiederecht: 
  1. The slides I use to introduce the topic of disability advocacy to my high school human rights classes. 
  2. An activity revolving around disabilities in the media, particularly with a TV show called Avatar the Last Airbender.
  3. An inventory the kids use to check to see how ADA compliant our school is.
  4. An activity where the kids formulate an accommodation.
  5. Awesome resource I use called Special Books by Special Kids. Special Books by Special Kids YouTube channel. 
• Emerging America Lesson: The Dehumanizing Effects of Eugenics - From Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum. Unlike most eugenics curriculum, students begin by exploring challenges to eugenics at the time and by examining the false "science" of a prominent eugenics study. Students then analyze arguments against eugenics in the 2012 North Carolina law that paid restitution to victims of forced sterilization. 

 

Discussion on Disability History and Preservice Education

• Teaching Disability History Resources for Teacher Education - Lance Neeper and Nancy Peck.

• Three Approaches to Communicating about Disability -  Darren Minarik. 
• Resolution 2025-02-05 Creating Inclusive Social Studies Classrooms for Students with Disabilities - National Council for the Social Studies. 
• Supported Decision-Making - New York. 
• Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. 

 

Disability History Curriculum and Teaching Resources 

• Children's book lists on disability from Tia Hinz 
• Recommended Children's Books on Disability History
• Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum 
• Disability History through Primary Sources
• Student Research Guides
• “The Struggle for Disability Rights - Overview of Disability History” - National History Day and Emerging America. 
• Disability Rights as Human Rights: The Role of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - Disability Equality Education. 

 

Learn More About the Teaching Disability History Project

• Keene State College (KSC) received a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) project grant in October, 2024. Read about the Teaching Disability History project at Keene State College, supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant. 

 

Conference Sponsors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Tom Olin. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.