In the next year, Atlanta residents with disabilities may have a special chance to tell their stories to a wider audience. The needs and concerns of the disability community are generally underrepresented in national conversations, and the Disability Visibility Project is working to change that by recording the stories of everyday people living with disabilities.
A major participant in the project is the nonprofit group StoryCorps, whose recordings can be heard on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” In the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which will be celebrated in July 2015, StoryCorps is partnering with the Disability Visibility Project to record casual conversations with people with disabilities, and Atlanta is among the cities where recording sessions have been scheduled.
If you participate, you’ll receive a high-quality CD of the recording, and all of the recordings will be archived and available for listening in the Library of Congress. The American Folklife Center will identify the Disability Visibility Project as a distinct collection of recordings.
In addition to the Atlanta sessions, StoryCorps will record conversations in Chicago and San Francisco, and the organization’s mobile recording booth will go to towns across the country. Organizers hope to gather stories about how the ADA has changed things for people with disabilities, and how they view the future.
It only takes a quick Internet search to see that the needs of people with disabilities are not well understood in the United States. The national conversation around these issues is too often filled with uninformed statements from individuals who have no understanding of what it means to suffer a disabling illness or injury and no longer be able to work. With the Disability Visibility Project, Atlanta residents may have an opportunity to help set the record straight.
Source: Disability Scoop, “StoryCorps Looks To Record Disability Experience,” Shaun Heasley, June 16, 2014
