Group aims to preserve, share Western Pa. disability history

A group of advocates and historians is working to document, preserve and share the history of people with disabilities and their activism in Western Pennsylvania.

“There’s a lot of history related to disability rights in our area,” said Tina Calabro, a founding member of The Western Pennsylvania Disability History and Action Consortium.

The group has worked to build its website into a clearinghouse where the general public and scholars alike can find information on what archives about local disability history exist and where those collections are stored, Ms. Calabro said.

That’s everything from records and photographs from Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, to hospital records from the now-closed Dixmont State Hospital, to the papers of former Gov. Dick Thornburgh to records for the Pittsburgh chapter of advocacy group Open Doors for the Handicapped of Pennsylvania.

“We continue to look for other collections that are out there,” said Ms. Calabro, who also wrote the “Breaking Down Barriers” column on disability issues for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2002 to 2013.

The consortium doesn’t maintain the collections, but aims to offer a central online location where anyone can go to learn more about local disability history.

Such history involves how society thought about people with disabilities, the rise of institutionalization, and the activism that led to more people being served through home and community-based

‘ ... there are issues that Western Pennsylvania has been at the center of in terms of disability rights and advocacy.’