5 Ways to Teach Disability History in Social Studies Class

_{Image by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights from Flickr licensed under CC by NC 2.0}

A few years ago, curriculum specialist Richard Cairn showed a photo from the World War II era to two young men he was working with on a campaign to promote teaching disability history. The image shows a man with multiple disabilities processing airplane parts in an American defense plant. Cairn said the two volunteer leaders, who live with multiple disabilities, were surprised by the image. “They were excited to learn that people with disabilities had been involved in helping to fight fascism during World War II and upset that this had not been discussed in their high school history class,” Cairn said. 

The young men’s excitement turned the photo into Cairn’s favorite image from disability history — and he has many to choose from. Cairn is one of the creators of Reform to Equal Rights, a free K-12 disability history curriculum that features 250 primary sources in its lesson plans. The curriculum is a project of the nonprofit Collaborative for Educational...