Teaching Disability History in October

Observed each October, during National Disability Employment Awareness Month, or “NDEAM,” we celebrate the value and talent workers with disabilities add to America’s workplaces and economy. NDEAM’s purpose is to confirm our commitment to ensuring disabled workers have access to good jobs, every month of every year. Let’s hear from an educator on how we can bring disability history and disability employment awareness into the classroom.

A few years ago, curriculum specialist Richard Cairn showed a photo from the World War II era to two young men he was working with on a campaign to promote teaching disability history. The image shows a man with multiple disabilities processing airplane parts in an American defense plant. Cairn said the two volunteer leaders, who live with multiple disabilities, were surprised by the image. “They were excited to learn that people with disabilities had been involved in helping to fight fascism during World War II and upset that this had not been discussed in their high school history class,” Cairn said.

Cairn is one of the creators of Reform to Equal Rights, a free K-12 disability history curriculum that features 250 primary sources in its lesson plans. Cairn often speaks with teachers about disability history at educator events, and when he asks teachers how disability history comes up in their courses, he usually gets two responses: Helen Keller or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In other words, if disability history comes up at all in K-12 social studies, it’s usually a passing mention, but that approach neglects the richness of disability history, which is part of every major era in social studies. According to Cairn, teachers don’t need to create entirely new units or courses to cover disability history; the curriculum offers lessons and primary sources to incorporate into commonly taught subjects, from the Civil War to civics.

1. The U.S. Civil War. The American Civil War left about half a million veterans injured or disabled and without systems to support them. Veterans organizations demanded and won the creation of a national system of hospitals and soldiers homes, and payment of pensions to disabled veterans. These events are important precursors to the ways Americans and the government viewed and responded to disability since then. Lessons from Reform to Equal Rights and an accompanying online exhibit introduce students to this aspect of the Civil War through photos and writing by civil war soldiers and nurses. The lessons also examine the institutions that were created to serve disabled veterans and encourage students to consider the experiences of disabled veterans today.

2. Immigration. A 1913 photograph from Ellis Island shows a line of immigrants waiting as a U.S. inspector conducts eye exams. According to Cairn, this photo is often used in teaching immigration history without acknowledging that it’s also a disability story. Pointing that out can spark discussions that strengthen students’ historical thinking skills. “Why would they keep people out? Because they have an eye disease,” Cairn explained. “And so, tracing that back and saying, where did that come from? How was that set up? Then you can go back to the legislation.” The Reform to Equal Rights lesson that includes this photo recommends that students also analyze a photo of immigrants traveling by ship, a political cartoon, an excerpt from the 1882 Immigration Act, and a photo of the chalk marks used by Ellis Island inspectors to identify physical or mental health issues.

3. Eugenics in the Progressive Era. In the 20th century, state agencies forcibly sterilized 70,000 people with mental illness or disabilities, though those labels were often dubious. Forced sterilization came into practice through efforts of the American eugenics movement and was upheld as legal in the 1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell. Eugenicists used flawed science to promote the idea of societal “improvement” by controlling who could reproduce. These practices continued into the 1970s in some states. A Reform to Equal Rights lesson for high school students explores eugenics history through news articles and other historical documents with arguments for and against forced sterilization. It also touches on North Carolina’s recent program to compensate victims of forced sterilization.

4. Civics. The topic of civics presents many opportunities to teach disability history. In April 1977, people with various disabilities occupied federal office buildings to demand action on section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That law required federally funded programs to ensure equal access to employment and education for individuals with disabilities. But three years later, regulations for enforcing the law had not been published. The 504 protest started in multiple cities, and in San Francisco it lasted 26 days before the Carter Administration signed the regulations. Gaining new perspective on historical events allows students to see the agency of individuals with disabilities throughout history, according to Cairn. “There are so many great stories of people with disabilities who have taken the leadership in their communities on all kinds of levels to help make the world a better place for people with disabilities,” he said. “For [students] to be able to see that … really enriches an understanding of civic life.”

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services