Disability History Exhibit

Panels are available as both PDF images and Accessible HTML

PDF Images - Panel Content - Timeline

Guide to using this pdf version of the panel display:

All PDF panels older than 25 months can be found on the State of Alaska Library Archives website.

Panel 1 - Disability has always been, and will likely always be, a part of the human condition.

Panel 2 - Religion has played an important role in providing basic services and shaping attitudes toward people with disabilities.

Panel 3 - Persons with disabilities are treated as social problems and public burdens.

Panel 4 - Disability becomes a medical issue requiring the services of trained professionals.

Panel 5 - A gradual understanding of science leads to new and often painful treatments for persons with disabilities.

Panel 6 - Social reform and new ideas in education offer opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.

Panel 7 - The commitment to education and the quality of services decline with the increasing demand for institutional placement.

Panel 8 - The quality of services for persons with disabilities further declines with a growing suspicion of all people who are different.

Panel 9 - Persons with developmental disabilities are made scapegoats for many of society's problems.

Panel 10 - Persons with disabilities - over 200,000 - are the first victims of the holocaust.

Panel 11 - Services slowly become available to persons with physical disabilities; many with developmental disabilities are largely forgotten and abandoned in institutions.

Panel 12 - Parents assert their leadership and begin to organize on behalf of children with disabilities.

Panel 13 - Advocacy by parents leads to increased funding, better community services, and larger institutions.

Panel 14 - Influenced by the civil and human rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, people with disabilities begin to fight for their rights.

Panel 15 - Disability is no longer limited to moral or medical definitions; it is now viewed by many as a social construct.

Panel 16 - People with disabilities face new opportunities and threats as America's largest minority.\

Panel 17 - Persons with developmental disabilities advocate for themselves and others with disabilties, proclaiming "we are people first!"

Panel 18 - Thousands of self-advocates across the world speak for themselves and fight for social change.

Panel 19 - Activitsts remember the past and work to ensure that crimes and mistakes are not repeated.

Panel 20 - Naming and claiming who we are, where we come from, and where we want to go.

Panel 21 - Disability is an art. Disability is a unique way of life.

Panel 22 - Connection to a different time in history - Seeking Full Participation.

Panel 23 - Connection to a different time in history: Community Integration for Everyone.