The effort known as the Disability Visibility Project is kicking off Monday as a community partnership with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit that allows everyday people to record casual, one-on-one conversations in an effort to preserve history. The recordings are frequently featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
StoryCorps’ recording booth in San Francisco is making sessions available between July 10 and Dec. 13 specifically for members of the disability community to record their stories. Additional times are expected to be added leading up to the ADA’s 25th anniversary in July 2015.
What’s more, recordings produced at StoryCorps’ booths in Chicago and Atlanta as well as through the organization’s MobileBooth, which travels to communities across the country, can also be tagged for inclusion in the project.
“The history of people with disabilities rarely appears in textbooks,” said Alice Wong who’s spearheading the effort. “I’ve had the good fortune to meet so many fascinating and amazing people with disabilities who have been fighting for disability rights for decades. I believe their stories and the stories of everyday Americans with disabilities should be preserved.”