Celebrating Disability History Month 2019

News | Posted on Wednesday 20 November 2019

Disability History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the lives and achievements of disabled people.

Disability History Month 2019 runs from Friday 22 November until Sunday 22 December; this year the theme is Disability: Leadership, Resistance and Culture. We are inviting students, staff and the wider community to engage with our events to learn something new.

"York's Disability History Month talks and events are a source of inspiration. Bringing the narratives around the empowerment of disabled people to the fore has never been more important", Mo Onyett & Penny Spikins, co-chairs of INCLUDE

Teaching resources

The History PGCE team in the Department of Education have developed resources for school history teachers to support learning about people with disabilities in the past. This work has been delivered at Historical Association conferences and published in the journal 'Teaching History':

Get involved!

  • Attend an event on campus or in the city (see below)
  • Check out the Disability History Month Boards in the Library Foyer
  • Watch a Disability TED Talk video
  • Decorate your working or office space with purple.
  • Tell others that it's Disability History Month in meetings, newsletters and emails.

Events

Dyslexia superpower: Moving from disability through learning difference to advantage

Thursday 28 November, 6pm - 7.15pm, in Chemistry C/A/101

Speaker Professor Nigel Lockett delivers this open lecture, with a speech to text facility provided. He will share his personal insights from being a dyslexia survivor; how his experiences at school shaped his career and how his decision to disclose his disability has reshaped his understanding of dyslexia as a superpower. Book your place for this event.

City-wide events

There'll be a range of events across York through November and December, including art exhibitions, stand up comedy, bBeginner BSL (British Sign Language) workshops, forums, cabaret, drumming and running. Find out more:

Leadership, Resistance and Culture exhibition

This exhibition in the University Library displays information about events on campus and in the city, and a poem by Adam Bojelian a multi-award winning child poet who lived with cerebral palsy.