Disability Justice Resources | Facing History & Ourselves
Official Facing History Collection

Disability Justice Resources

Resources 13
Last Modified June 21, 2024
Description Explore resources that provide fair, accurate, inclusive and respectful references about the contributions by people with disabilities in history and social studies curriculum in accordance with Senate Bill 84, the California FAIR Education Act.
External Resource

California FAIR Education Act

Notes
Frequently Asked Questions related to the implementation of Senate Bill 48 (Chapter 81 of the Statutes of 2011).
External Resource

Teaching the History of Disability and Building Inclusive Learning Communities

Notes
An educator panel about teaching the history of disability and creating the processes and practices essential to building inclusive communities.
Guide

All-Community Read Guide: Being Heumann and Rolling Warrior

This planning guide will support your school community as you read the memoir of Judy Heumann, one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history.

Student reading a book
Video

Bishop von Galen and the War against the Disabled

Scholar Doris Bergen discusses Bishop von Galen and his opposition to the Nazi T4 euthanasia program.

Video

The Sterilization of Leilani Muir

This documentary traces the life of Leilani Muir, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization, and provides background on the history of eugenics in the early 1900s.

Reading

Protesting Medical Killing

Explore the stories of three German ministers who chose to speak out against the Nazis’ "euthanasia" program.

After Germany conquered the Warthegau region of Poland, members of the League of German Girls moved there to help colonize and spread German culture.
Reading

Being Well Born: New Civic Biology by George William Hunter

Read excerpts of George William Hunter’s book about the now-disproved idea that traits like intelligence and morality are handed down from generation to generation.

Photograph of journal bindings in an anthropology library, showing the transition where Eugenics Quarterly was renamed to Social Biology in 1969.
Reading

"You Get Proud by Practicing" by Laura Hershey

This reading contains a poem by disability activist Laura Hershey.

Sasha Guzman discusses with an attendee at a los Angeles summit.
Reading

"Unworthy to Live"

Learn about the Nazis’ medical killing program that was responsible for the murder of mentally and physically disabled people during World War II.

An exhibit at a Berlin school persuades Germans to help colonize the Warthegau area of Poland. The exhibit says “The land calls you!,” and the painting shows a settler’s car passing by a Polish border sign that has been knocked down.
Reading

Breeding the New German "Race"

Learn about the sterilization law in Nazi Germany and other measures taken by the Nazis to ensure the purity of the Aryan race.

 Germans look on as the Reichstag building burns on February 27, 1933.
External Resource

Models of Disability

Notes
In this blog post Keagan Stoyles, Facing History and Ourselves Program Intern, and Shira Wolch, Education Coordinator for ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto, discuss the importance of understanding the models of disability and accommodations that are made for certain students but benefit all.
Impact Story

LA Upstander: The Wonders of Having a Disability Club

The “dynamic duo” , Katy M. and Francia G., have excelled academically and worked diligently to not allow their educational disabilities to limit their education in any way, shape or form.

Animo Jackie Robinson Charter High School logo
Reading

Lauren from Providence, RI

In this personal narrative, a young adult reflects on the assumptions made about her as the daughter of a Chinese parent and her experience living with cerebral palsy.

Portrait of Lauren from Rhode Island