To celebrate Disability Pride Month, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has highlighted some of the projects they have funded that “expand disability access and research and support the teaching and preservation of disability history and experience.” A few examples include:
– The American Foundation for the Blind received support to digitize their archival collections and to create the Helen Keller Archive, a fully accessible and free online resource containing the world’s largest collection of letters, speeches, scrapbooks, photographs, and artifacts relating to Helen Keller. This resource makes important materials documenting Keller’s life and work accessible to blind, deaf, deafblind, sighted, and hearing audiences. Read more here about the Digitization of the Helen Keller Archival Collection.
– The Hastings Center organized “The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability,” a series of public events over the past few years. These discussions engaged the participation of scholars, artists, writers, and other “thought leaders” to reflect on “what ‘flourishing’ means to them.” Among the topics: “Questioning Cure: Disability, Identity, and Healing;” “Disrupting Ableism with Artful Activism;” and “Navigating: On Disability, Technology, and Experiencing the World.” To read more about the six events involved and to access the recordings, visit The Hastings Center webpage here on its Public Events Series: The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability
– An instructional book, Building a More Perfect Union, has been created by NEH and National History Day in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This publication includes a lesson plan with primary sources and activities to help students learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Available through NEH’s education portal, EDSITEment, the book, Building a More Perfect Union, may be accessed here.
For the complete listings of related resources, visit the NEH webpage for the Virtual Bookshelf: Disability Pride Month.
