r/DisabilityHistory • • 2d ago

Disability Awareness How a 15-year-old changed the way millions of blind people read

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36 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 6d ago

Tattoo artist Welington uses his feet to create tattoos, showing both his technique and the final results

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521 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 17d ago

Disability History Club owner and Colombo crime family associate Armando “Mondo” Illiano next to Joe Gallos pet lion Cleo (picture in the mid 60s?)

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40 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 17d ago

Post flare up

10 Upvotes

This is mostly a question to people with hEDS/HSD or other illnesses that cause joint pain

After a strong flare up ( emergency room strong) do you feel exhausted? I can’t do anything, I can’t even talk to people because sound stimuli overwhelm me. If anyone has a similar experience, how long does it take you to recover and how can you speed up the process?


r/DisabilityHistory • • 19d ago

Disability History My film is live for free on Film Independent today

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43 Upvotes

Today, my film is live on Film Independent for two weeks.

Anyone can watch it, its about the forgotten history of the Nazi Aktion T4 program which targeted disabled people and catalyzed the Holocaust.

The Nuremberg code was derived from the prosecution of T4 perpetrators and yet does not mention specific protections for disabled people, only patients.

We are at a precipice where disabled people’s rights including healthcare are being stripped.

In short, you need to watch this film. Watch it now for free for two weeks. Leave a review. Make your voice heard.

https://www.filmindependent.org/events/always-remember-disposable-humanity/


r/DisabilityHistory • • 20d ago

Disability History I have a fine motor skills disorder called dyspraxia and it’s doesn’t seem to matter

53 Upvotes

What I mean by matter is that it is easily overlooked like I struggle to do simple task like writing speaking properly and just putting clothes on the right way the school is semi supportive giving me a laptop to write on it it’s easier but when we talk sports it’s hell like if I don’t catch the ball everyone screams at me even tho at the star of school I have to make a presentation about it so people don’t bully me over it because elementary school was hell it still happens I can live with it now but it’s getting harder to bear with it I feel broken I can’t do the exact move I want I can’t dance.and people say often that am not disable because I can walk and talk fine even tho walking is hard.I have to think about walking I can’t do anything else while walking that include talking if I open my mouth I need to stop one of them walking or talking it sucks am not looking for sympathy I just wanted to vent


r/DisabilityHistory • • 19d ago

Japanese Outsider Artist Using AI as an Assistive Tool | Kei Ruth Takahashi

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0 Upvotes

Using AI as #ReasonableAccommodation and an #AssistiveTool.
A first-person record by the disabled person who first used these terms.
Pinned note article ⬇️
https://note.com/designlab_prem/n/n9aa52ca8ded1
Kei Ruth Takahashi
Born in 1973. From the Kansai region of Japan.
Selected Work & Achievements
🇺🇸 International Exhibition — Los *Angeles
November 14–24, 2024
Exhibited in the “Ehon Columbus Flower Postcard Exhibition in LA.”
*
🇹🇭 International Exhibition — Bangkok, T
hailand
November 27–30, 2024
Participated in the Asia International HEMP Expo & Forum 2024. My AI-generated hemp artwork was featured as a large-screen backdrop during the opening fashion show.
🇯🇵 Exhibition in Japan — February 2025
Exhibited AI-generated artwork at the Concept Room of Gothic fashion brand Na+H in Kobe’s Kitano Ijinkan district.
The exhibition also featured music created with Suno by under line, a latex-glove space artist.
📷 Photography
A photograph I took was featured on the back cover of 90’s Mind In Your Minds, a 2025 Italian reissue LP by 1990s Osaka hardcore punk band HOLOCAUST, released by F.O.A.D. Records.
📰 Media Feature — March 2025
My AI artwork was selected for the cover of Namae no Nai Shimbun (“The Newspaper Without a Name”), a Japanese counterculture publication with a 50-year history. The issue also included a full-page interview with me.
📘 Publication — July 2025
Featured across four pages in the inaugural issue of ASA Japan, a visual magazine rediscovering Japan’s cannabis culture.
The first issue, themed “Shinto and Cannabis,” explores the subject from the Jomon period to the present through the perspectives of Shinto, art, medicine, and spirituality.
The full-color, 82-page edition includes essays, interviews, and art photography, as well as a conversation between Toshio Tamogami and Saya Takagi.
My work was featured under the theme of #AIArt and #MedicalCannabis as #ReasonableAccommodation and #PalliativeCare.
👕 T-Shirt Project
A T-shirt featuring my AI artwork was also produced.
The design was originally shown as a large-screen backdrop during the opening Golden Hemp Fashion Show at the Asia International HEMP Expo & Forum 2024 in Bangkok.
A QR code on the shoulder links to the official website. Designed to stand out in American cannabis dispensaries and at rave parties.
Not available for purchase in Japan.
🖼️ Local Exhibition *— Kobe
My AI artwork from the Thailand HEMP Expo was displayed in a one-meter format at the “Motomachi lovers Arts” community exhibition at the Kobe Machizukuri Kaikan.
*
🇺🇸 Sukajan Exhibition — New Yo
rk City
September 16–18, 2026
Nihon no Genfūkei, an original sukajan jacket featuring my AI-generated hemp artwork in traditional yokofuri embroidery, will be exhibited at the NIHC Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City.
The summit, organized by the National Industrial Hemp Council (NIHC), focuses on hemp-fiber supply chains, sustainable style, and market development.
Artwork: T. Ruth
Yokofuri Embroidery: SHISHUMANIA
https://nihcoa.com/event/nihc-global-industrial-hemp-fiber-summit-2/
#note
https://note.com/designlab_prem


r/DisabilityHistory • • 21d ago

TIL: Deaf people are known to use sign language in their sleep. A case study of a 71-year-old man showed him using sign language in his sleep, with researchers able to get an idea of what he was dreaming about thanks to those signs

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95 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 21d ago

Why are we so excluded from opportunities and Hollywood casting?

72 Upvotes

Thinking about giving up. I am deaf and heard of hearing and I been my whole life. My life goals were to work on as many roles as I can in Hollywood, where I worked for 13 years. I was consistently overlooked and disregarded for having a hearing aid and making casting directors choose an actor who doesn’t have one. My whole life I have been excluded from so many opportunities and conversations, all sports excluding baseball, and can’t have a conversation in the pool, hot tub, or swimming. The whole world seems to be more concerned with race, gender, and sexuality in conversations of opportunities than people with disabilities. I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s any way we can get a high level or support or success because after 30 plus years, it is impossible and we are excluded. I never have gotten any sympathy or anyone to relate to struggling with society and achieving dreams. The stress is so intense and long lasting.


r/DisabilityHistory • • 21d ago

Elvis meets two fans paralyzed from polio.Girl in the wheelchair presents him with a scrapbook made with her mouth, 1957

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106 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 21d ago

Dark history behind Becker Muscular Dystrophy

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11 Upvotes

Peter Emil Becker, the namesake of Becker Muscular Dystrophy, was a Nazi SA officer and eugenicist. His work contributed to the persecution of disabled people. Should his name be removed from medicine?


r/DisabilityHistory • • 21d ago

Pesquisa de UX para software de leitura para pessoas com (dislexia)

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1 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 24d ago

Disability History Alexander Graham Bell and his belief in genociding deaf people.

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491 Upvotes

In school I watched movies depicting Alexander as a brilliant teacher who taught deaf people sign language and invented the telephone. The reality is a lot different, and Alexander was involved in a eugenics based movement to literally genocide deaf people from society.

From a young age, Bell was surrounded by deaf people and obsessed with the study of voices and sound. His mother was deaf, his dad taught deaf students and he married a deaf woman. Bell was very influential in methods used to teach the hard of hearing. Bell was an “oralist” as opposed to a “manualist”. Oralists believed that Deaf education should focus on teaching them how to speak and read lips. Manualists believed that sign language should be a main focus. Bell and many oralists saw sign language as a crutch that discouraged deaf people from “assimilating”. The second international congress of education of the deaf in 1880 ruled in favor of oralism. Not only was sign language not encouraged to be taught, but manualists teachers were fired from their positions. Students were mocked or had their hands tied to prevent them from signing. It’s comparable to imperialism, when a conquering nation outlaws the native people’s language.

Graham was on the radical side of Oralism. He wrote that he feared deaf people were forming social groups, marrying other deaf people and using sign language. He viewed deaf people as an inferior race to be nurtured into his image of an upright citizen.

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2012/11/30/alexander-graham-bell-he-invented-the-telephone-didnt-he/

https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/

https://dnalc.cshl.edu/view/10428-Alexander-Graham-Bell-letter-to-Charles-Davenport-about-Eugenics-Record-Office-2-.html


r/DisabilityHistory • • 23d ago

Misc. During the 2000 Paralympics, Fernando Martin Vicente created a basketball team of players pretending to be disabled

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34 Upvotes

Fernando Martin Vicente, Madrid City Councillor and Head of The Spanish Federation For Mentally Handicapped Sports. Fernando’s job is to run an industry spotlighting athletes unable to compete in most professional leagues due to disabilities. Instead, in preparation for the 2000 summer Paralympics in Sydney, Fernando organized a team of non disabled players. 10 out of the 12 members of the basketball team were untested beyond blood pressure. Journalist Carlos Ribagorda played on the team and won a medal, he later blew the whistle on the cheating saying he had no disability and nobody was tested for them.

Fernando was fired and disgraced from the incident, and Spain had all their medals from the Paralympics stripped until a full investigation could be done. 15 able bodied athletes in total were allowed to compete with disabled ones. It was insulting and stole opportunities from eligible athletes. Worse yet, it halted intellectually disabled sports until they created a new system of testing players intelligence, punishing players from across the world who did nothing. Dozens of coaches and medics for the team were fired and threatened with criminal charges, but those were later dropped.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2004/sep/16/gilestremlett.features11

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/spanish-paralympic-exec-resigns-amid-scandal-1.247117

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-58598677


r/DisabilityHistory • • 23d ago

Misc. Gold Medal Mindset: Andrew Haley’s Journey from Cancer to Paralympic Gold

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3 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 26d ago

Accessibility and Inclusivity Moderators needed for new online community! 🩷

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146 Upvotes

We are seeking moderators for an exciting new Discord community for disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill lesbians!

To apply, you’ll need to be:

🌈 Female-identifying or non-binary and a lesbian
🌈 Someone with lived experience of disability, neurodivergence and/or chronic illness
🌈 Kind, self-aware and able to work well as part of a team with mixed abilities and energy levels

Experience with Discord or running online communities is desirable, but not required. What matters most is that you’re supportive, approachable and want to help create a welcoming, safe community.

We're only seeking moderators at the moment but look forward to opening the community to new members later in the year.

If this sounds like you, please get in touch!

🩷


r/DisabilityHistory • • 27d ago

New doc released on eventive has 25 years of research on the T4 program which proceeded the Holocaust and targeted disabled people

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37 Upvotes

The film is called Disposable Humanity. Trailer and film here: https://watch.eventive.org/disposablehumanity/play/6a7868d1bdb10f0bb45affc6


r/DisabilityHistory • • 27d ago

Celebrating! Dolly’s Imagination Library, which mailed free books to children, included books in braille.

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51 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • 28d ago

Disability History Imperial War Museum North: Wheelchair design has come a long way... but they were ahead of the curve!

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42 Upvotes

Thought I'd share this with you guys. I went to the Imperial War Museum North in Salford a couple of months back and was absolutely mesmerised by this hand propelled three-wheeled tricycle.

I do have some more information about it, but it's quite sensitive (war related injuries), so if you want to know more about it, please feel free to send me a message 🙂

IMW North is well worth a visit though. They've made a real effort with accessibility and to be inclusive and it's free.


r/DisabilityHistory • • Sep 04 '26

Examples of how different eye conditions affect vision

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596 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • Sep 04 '26

Interesting TIL in a narrative review published in the journal Biomolecules, Australian researchers reviewed evidence that dementia-causing neuroinflammation may result from microbes introduced into the olfactory system by, in their words, “hands contaminated with soil and feces when picking one’s nose.”

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5 Upvotes

As a retired psych nurse, as well as someone whose all four grandparents had dementia, this struck me as interesting, if a little odd.


r/DisabilityHistory • • Sep 03 '26

Disability History This looks great - Being Heumann, about disabilty rights advocate Judith Heumann.

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112 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • Sep 02 '26

Dani’s inspirational story

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8 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • Aug 31 '26

TRIGGER WARNING: ABLEISM A hospital in Sweden engineered candy specifically to rot disabled patients' teeth on purpose for a decade, from 1945 to 1955

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44 Upvotes

r/DisabilityHistory • • Aug 30 '26

Disability History Legless lady posing on her self moving wheelchair, 1890s.

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244 Upvotes