October 7. 2008
Independent Voices, a history exhibit exploring Nevada County's disability rights movement, is on display at the Rood Center.
The exhibit includes photographs, documents, interviews and other material collected by the Documenting Disability History Project. It will be on display during business hours through Oct. 17 at the county's administrative center on Maidu Avenue at Highway 49, in Nevada City.
It opened Friday with a reception attended by about 70 people.
The exhibit is the culmination of a year and half of researching and interviewing people active in the local disability rights movement.
It has been "fascinating to see how a successful grassroots movement develops. The level of collaboration within this movement is pretty inspiring," Project Director Heather Heckler said.
Nevada County's grassroots disability rights movement began in the early 1980s, when a small group of people, inspired by the United Nations' International Year of Disabled Persons, organized to advocate for a ramp into the Grass Valley Library.
From that early success came many changes that have made Nevada County a more accessible place for the more than 16,000 people with disabilities living here.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 18.5 percent of the population has some kind of disability, including: Sensory problems including blindness, deafness or partial impairment; and physical, mental (including problems remembering or concentrating), learning, developmental and employment disabilities.
The Documenting Disability History Project, which began in May 2007, is sponsored by FREED Center for Independent Living and funded through a grant from the California Council for the Humanities. The goal of the project is to record the oral histories of local disability rights advocates and to make the stories available to the community.
The exhibit eventually will tour local and state agencies. A prerecorded audio description is available for those with visual impairments; contact Heather Heckler at 477-1761.
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