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Disabled children learning in a classroom at Washington Boulevard School.

Disabling Modernism

During the first decade of the New Deal, modernist architects designed schools for disabled children that proposed radical visions of civic care.
by David Serlin via Places Journal on May 15, 2024
The leaders of the Continental Congress: Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Morris.

The Disabled Founding Father who Put the ‘United’ in ‘United States’

Newly digitized journals reveal the life of Gouverneur Morris, the Constitution preamble writer, vocal opponent of slavery and disabled congressman.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on July 30, 2023
Front entrance of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Mütter and More

Why we need to be critical of medical museums as spaces for disability histories.
by Aparna Nair via Disability Visibility Project on July 29, 2023
House Energy Committee Chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) speaks during a subcommittee hearing about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic on Feb. 8.
partner

The Eugenic Roots of ‘Quality Adjusted Life Years,’ and Why They Matter

Why a powerful House Republican wants to ban a common insurance practice.
by Pepper Stetler via Made By History on March 8, 2023
A photo of three young girls smiling seated around a table with dolls next to them.

Reading Disability History Back into American Girl

The author's personal history with the dolls, and an argument for American Girl to make a new doll with a disability.
by Marissa Spear via Nursing Clio on November 1, 2022
Head of a man with a severe disease affecting his face by Christopher D' Alton, 1858. One of a collection of drawings by D' Alton of patients at the Royal Free Hospital, Grays Inn Road, London.

The Ugly History of Chicago’s "Ugly Law"

In the nineteenth century, laws in many parts of the country prohibited "undeserving" disabled people from appearing in public.
by Livia Gershon, Adrienne Phelps Coco via JSTOR Daily on September 3, 2021
"The Boy Who Stuttered and the Girl Who Lisped" poster

Women Cry – Men Swear

Gender and stuttering in the early twentieth-century United States.
by Evan P. Sullivan via Nursing Clio on August 31, 2021
An example of an almanac for New Jersey, from 1779

Inspiration Porn and Depictions of Impairment in Early America

How people understood disabilities in the 18th century, in contrast to contemporary interpretation, requires historical nuance.
by Meg Roberts via Public Disability History on July 1, 2021
Clipping of a newspaper article titled "Helen Keller and Socialism"

Problematic Icons

Political activists Greta Thunberg and Helen Keller have been just as misunderstood by their supporters as by their detractors.
by Emmeline Burdett via Public Disability History on March 16, 2021
Helen Keller, circa 1954.

Did Helen Keller Really “Do All That”?

A troubling TikTok conspiracy theory questions whether Keller was “real.”
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on February 26, 2021
Sketches of soldiers on the cover of "Bodies In Blue."

Civil War Disability in the Light and the Dark

Beyond the "casualty numbers and bloodshed," a new history takes into account the "social and structural issues" of disability among soldiers and veterans.
by Sarah Handley-Cousins, Evan P. Sullivan via Nursing Clio on August 6, 2019
Black and white image of Hellen Keller sitting

Helen Keller: Activist and Orator

Though Helen Keller’s childhood triumph over the difficulties of her deaf-blindness are known, many are unaware of her second act as an activist and orator.
by Arlene Balkansky via Library of Congress on July 31, 2018
Photo of Laura Bridgman wearing opaque eyeglasses.

The Education of Laura Bridgman

She was Helen Keller before Helen Keller. Then her mentor abandoned their studies.
by Rosemary Mahoney via Slate on May 1, 2014
Diagram of a movement experiment studying abnormalities in walking

The Making of the American Culture of Work

Building the assumption of work’s meaningfulness happened across many different institutions and types of media.
by Max L. Chapnick via Commonplace on April 22, 2025
A photograph of the author's brother, Steve, playing pool.

Imperfecta

Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the emerging era of gene editing.
by Pamela Haag via The American Scholar on June 20, 2024
A photograph of four children standing, one is slouching.

Are You Sitting Up Straight? America’s Obsession with Improving Posture

In Beth Linker’s new book, she applies a disability studies lens to the history of posture.
by Laura Ansley via Perspectives on History on May 9, 2024
Fingerspelling alphabet.

Deafness Is Not a Silence

On the suppression of sign language.
by Sarah Marsh via The Millions on March 14, 2024
Illustration of hands signing the fingerspelling alphabet

Unlocking Reason: How the Deaf Created Their Own System of Communication

Exploring Deaf history, language and education as the hearing child of a Deaf adult.
by Moshe Kasher via Literary Hub on January 22, 2024
Flag that says: "Rights for Disabled People Now!"

Fighting for Rights: An Overview of Urban Disability

This is the first post in our theme for October 2023, Urban Disability focusing on the role of cities in fostering disability rights.
by Ryan Reft via The Metropole on October 3, 2023
Black and white photo of a white woman holding a baby.

Can Every Baby Be A Gerber Baby? A Century of American Baby Contests And Eugenics

In 2018, Gerber selected baby Lucas as the winner of its Spokesbaby Contest, making Lucas the first Gerber baby with Down syndrome.
by Jamie Marsella via Nursing Clio on August 23, 2022
Illustration of screens, electronics, and sound waves.

The Hidden History of Screen Readers

For decades, blind programmers have been creating the tools their community needs.
by Sheon Han via The Verge on July 14, 2022
Hellen Keller portrait

The Atlantic Writers Project: Hellen Keller

A contemporary Atlantic writer reflects on one of the voices from the magazine's archives who helped shape the publication—and the nation.
by Ellen Cushing via The Atlantic on July 11, 2022
Harriet Tubman in the late 1860s.

When Harriet Tubman Met John Brown

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.
by Paul Bowers via Jacobin on June 19, 2022
Spectrum of color from red to blue.

A Little Spectrum-y

What the autism diagnosis says about you.
by Emer Lucey via The Drift on January 20, 2022
Bob Dole sitting next to Mike Pence at an official event

Bob Dole’s Disability Rights Legacy Marked the End of a Bipartisan Era

The former Republican leader played a key role in the Americans With Disabilities Act but stuck with the GOP as the party turned its back on the law.
by Erica Garcia via The New Republic on December 5, 2021
Illustration of Achsa Sprague by Fan Pu

She Spoke to the Dead. They Told Her to Free the Slaves.

In 1850s Vermont, Achsa Sprague swore that the spirits who helped her walk again also possessed her with a crucial mission: freeing every soul in America.
by Madeline Bodin via Narratively on October 21, 2021
Helen Keller meeting JFK in the White House

The Helen Keller You Didn't Learn About in School

Limited education on Keller's life has implications for how students perceive people with disabilities .
by Olivia B. Waxman, Arpita Aneja via TIME on December 15, 2020
Image of a Black man wearing a black mask saying "I Can't Breathe"

A History of Anti-Black Racism In Medicine

This syllabus lays groundwork for making questions of race and racism central to studying the histories of medicine and science.
by Elise A. Mitchell, Ayah Nuriddin, Antoine S. Johnson via Black Perspectives on August 12, 2020

From Noncompliant Bodies to Civil Disobedience

Lessons from Crip Camp, a new documentary that explores the roots of the disability rights movement.
by Susan Stryker via The Nation on March 24, 2020

Did the New Deal Need FDR?

His political evolution points to a different locus of power than the one liberals tend to invoke when discussing the era’s history.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on November 11, 2019
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