New “Voices of Change” video features Kate Bayer, former teacher at Polk State Center
 The Consortium is pleased to announce the premiere of its latest video in the “Voices of Change” series, an interview with Kate Bayer. As a graduate student in special education at Clarion University in the early 1970s, Kate spent nine months teaching school-age children at Polk State Center, an institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Venango County. Her assignment to Polk followed the 1972 Pennsylvania judicial decree which guaranteed–for the first time–the “Right to Education” for children with disabilities...[READ MORE]
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Second Annual Disability Pride Virtual PA includes Western PA speakers
 The Consortium, in partnership with Staunton Farm Foundation, will participate in the second annual Disability Pride Virtual PA event with three sessions focused on mental health. Disability Pride Virtual PA 2021 offers ten days of online events from June 21 to June 30, 2021. The annual event’s theme is “Make Pennsylvania Disability Proud!”...[READ MORE]
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“Researching Institutional Records” webinar and new book about Pennhurst provide insight into institutional era
 On April 15, 2021, Heinz History Center hosted a webinar designed to help genealogists, family members and others learn about researching records of formerly institutionalized Pennsylvanians. The session also provided a historical overview of the rise of institutions and the de-institutionalization movement...[READ MORE]
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American Democracy exhibit at Heinz History Center includes disability rights
Don't miss the chance to explore the history of what it means to be an American citizen at the exhibit American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith, on exhibit at Heinz History Center through October 10. Developed in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the wide-ranging exhibition explores citizen participation, debate and compromise...[READ MORE]
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HERL earns patent for enhanced mobility wheelchair
In February, researchers from the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) were granted a patent for an innovative new wheelchair. The Mobility Enhancement Robotic Wheelchair, or MEBot for short, is capable of dealing with difficult, uneven terrain while keeping its user safe and providing a smooth ride...[READ MORE]
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Please take our survey about disability history if you haven't already done so. The Consortium is a resource for records and artifacts that tell the story of disability rights history and activism in Western Pennsylvania.
If you know of such items or information, we'd like to add them to the listings on our website. If you need help preserving them, we can help with that too.
Contact us at info@wpdhac.org.
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