Disability & the American Past: Failures in Intersectionality

In America’s long 20th century civil rights movements histories, disabled people—and especially BIPOC and LGBTQ+ disabled people—are often erased. And in the prominent stories told of America’s disability rights movements histories, activist work and key issues usually have centered on comparatively privileged people: white, college-educated, CIS gendered, heteronormative, and physically disabled individuals.

This panel offers intersectional critique and counter-stories. Keith Jones, activist and founder of SoulTouchin’ Experiences, Anita Cameron, director of Minority Outreach at Not Dead Yet, and disability and deaf cultural historian Susan Burch will reflect upon the limits of U.S. disability rights movement’s strategies and histories as well as the efforts by disabled people living at the intersection of multiple marginalizations and oppressions to create a more just and inclusive world. They will discuss the uneven impact and incomplete legacy of disability rights movements to date, the emergence of disability justice work, and collectively imagine disability histories ahead of us.