The Disability Visibility Project (DVP) is an online community dedicated to creating, recording, sharing, and amplifying disability media, stories, and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...

. DVP is a community partnership with

StoryCorps StoryCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. StoryCorps grew out of Sound Portraits Productions as a project founded in 2003 by radio ...

, an American oral history organization dedicated to preserving and sharing stories through interviews. Interviews recorded with StoryCorps are archived at the

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

with the permission of the interviewer. The DVP platform consists mainly of blog posts and podcast episodes, but also creates disabled media from collected

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

in the form of tweets, radio stories, audio clips, images, etc.

History

The Disability Visibility Project was founded by the disability activist Alice Wong in 2014, who remains the sole creator and director of the project. There are around 61 million people living with disabilities in America, most of who are never represented in mainstream media. The Disability Visibility Project was founded in order to create a body of history and knowledge about the lives and experiences of those who are disabled. It was created to preserve the experiences of this unrepresented group. The project was originally a year-long campaign that would end in 2015 to celebrate 25 years since the

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 196 ...

(ADA) was passed. Despite the law requiring specific parking spaces and ramps for disabled people, Wong believed that these efforts did not actually protect the disabled community. Wong remained critical of the ADA's progress and achievements, especially concerning disparities in healthcare, education, and economic security, limiting the ability to fully participate in every aspect of society. DVP was launched a way for the disabled community to take back control of their narrative and dismantle the idea that living with a disability is either pitiful or inspirational. Because Wong believed that the disabled community was missing a documented history, she worked with StoryCorps to create the DVP and raise awareness of everyday people living with physical, mental, and/or learning disabilities.

Project aims

The Disability Visibility Project works with StoryCorps to encourage and allow disabled people to record their own oral histories and to share their lived experiences of disability. The aim of the DVP is to create intersectional, multi-modal, and accessible disabled media. The platform serves as a space for disabled people and people with disabilities to make their voices heard. Participants who share their interviews and stories contribute to an archive of powerful stories that are available to future generations. Wong believes that people in the disabled community have a lot to teach and share, from experiences regarding their disability to things beyond perceived limitations. DVP aims to showcase stories that say disabled people should be valued as people.

Archive

The Disability Visibility Project is an ongoing effort. The podcast, launched in 2017, includes over 80 episodes, each with an open and honest reflection of the experiences of the disability community. Topics range from video games, climate change, poetry, immigration, intersectionality, design, violence, mental health, to entrepreneurship. A list of all DVP Interviews can be found on their website. Interviews are organized alphabetically by the interviewee's last name. Each interview page features an edited audio clip, image description, and text transcript produced by the DVP team. The collection of interviews serves as an archive of disability culture and history. The DVP blog publishes reports, news, blog posts, Q&A posts, and original essays written by Wong, guest writers, and people with disabilities who are engaged with culture at every level. Topics include ableism, intersectionality, culture, media, and politics from the perspective of disabled people. Copies of oral history interviews are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress if given permission by the interviewer.{{Cite web, title=Online Collections and Presentation (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress), url=https://www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html, access-date=2020-10-15, website=www.loc.gov

References

External links

Official website
Disability organizations based in the United States Disability culture