Disability History & Culture Resources
Disability History & Culture Resources
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This page has reports [real life stories told by youth and young adults with disabilities] about disability history & culture.
Reports
Awareness Through Networking
This tip sheet will give you advice on how to network, or connect with new people, so that you can teach them about and make them more comfortable with your disability. The more people know about disabilities as a whole, the more disability awareness is spread.
Disability Pride: What is it? How can we express it?
Disability Pride is an important part of advocacy. Wondering how you can have Disability Pride? Read this to learn about the three parts of disability pride; acceptance, community and history and ways to show your pride.
Youth Friendly/Accessible Language
Youth friendly/accessible language is helpful to all audiences. The Kids As Self Advocates project advocates for using accessible language because inaccessible language is often something that stops young people from being involved in leadership.
Medical Model v. Social Model
When disabilities and people are being discussed, it is often the way people are referred to that may set the tone for the conversation. Historically, people with disabilities have been defined BY their disability and considered “sick” or “needing to be fixed”. While our movement progresses, we have tried to more into a more “social” model of thinking-that it’s about the person, not heir “condition”. Read more about the comparison here.
Disability Worldwide
Have you ever wondered what life is like for people with disabilities in other countries? While you may feel that you have a pretty good sense of what disability experience is like in the United States, conditions are vastly different in countries worldwide.
What is Disability Culture
We often hear or make reference to “disability culture”. What is this? Is it different than other cultures? Read about it here.
What is Self-Determination
Self Determination is a phrase that disability activists and advocates use to define what it means to be independent and make decisions for yourself. We have compiled a short list of the barriers that are between people with disabilities making their own decisions and make some recommendations on how to fix that.
The History of Disability Portrayal in the Media; Disability Culture part I
Erin has done her research in this first part of on ongoing series on Disability Culture. Check out installment one here and then TALK BACK in the FORUM!
Disability Portrayal and the Media Today; Disability Culture part II
Erin is back with the next part in her series, “Disability Portrayal and the Media Today”. Read all about it and speak your mind in the FORUM!
Disabilities and Self Image; Disability Culture part III
This is Erin’s third installment in her “Disability Portrayal in the Media’ series. In this installment, Erin has researched (and shares her opinion) about “Disabilities and Self IMage”. Tell us how you feel about it in the FORUM!
An Unknown Culture
Although this was originally written for a class, Christina Mills shares helpful information. She thinks that if more folks are aware of disability as a culture, they may be less likely to discriminate. Agree? Disagree? let us know!
The Truth About Disability
Although this was originally written for a class, the message is important for all. Christina Mills writes about the importance of knowing disability history.
Disability History Timeline
This is a brief timeline on big events in Disability History. It is by no means comprehensive and we are always adding to it. Got something we missed? Send it to us!
Respectful Disability Language
This fact sheet is a summary of what respectful disaibility language is, why it’s important and shares some guidelines for talking about people with disabilities in a respectful way.
KASA/NYLN Respectful Disability Language
This is part of a series of documents co-written and produced by KASA with NYLN, the National Youth Leadership Council. The use of language and words describing people with disabilities has changed over time. It’s important that people are aware of the meaning behind the words they use when talking to, referring to, or working with the Disability Community.
KASA/NYLN Document Accessibility Checklist
Are you looking for ways to outreach to more people? Are you trying to get people involved? Are you trying to keep them involved? How a document reads and looks affects whether people can understand the information being shared. This is a checklist for document accessibility. It also includes some tips to think about when making programs or services accessible to all people.
KASA/NYLN Accessibility and Accommodations: Making opportunity Accessible to All
People can be born with a disability or they can get a disability later in life, but people in this community have one thing in common: we often face barriers when trying to be involved in activities such as education, employment, health care, social events, and more. This document explains ways to make sure people with disabilities can participate in different activities.