Category: disability history

How the Ugly Laws were designed to keep disabled people out of sight

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Today first takes us to the lovely Portland Oregon where we’re learning about “The Ugly Laws” that were created to stop disabled people from being seen in public and “obstructing the roadways.” For people with visible disabilities, this history will not sound surprising, considering how entitled the public feels to comment on the way disability…Continue reading How the Ugly Laws were designed to keep disabled people out of sight

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female doctor in the U.S. and England. She lost an eye in an accident, but spent her whole life denying her disability.

Elizabeth Blackwell: The disabled doctor that hated sick people

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I’ve known about Elizabeth Blackwell for a long time, but what I did not know was that she suffered a serious eye injury while practicing medicine and became disabled. That injury changed the trajectory of her life, and possibly the trajectory of medicine as she taught the world that women were capable human beings. I…Continue reading Elizabeth Blackwell: The disabled doctor that hated sick people

Wilma Rudolph lived with disability as a child, and survived double pneumonia, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, and whooping cough all before she was seven years old. The one that left its mark was polio.  It "crippled" her legs and stopped her from walking or running like the other children.

How Wilma Rudolph survived polio and became the fastest woman in the world

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Wilma Rudolph lived with disability and sickness from the very beginning. She’s born into this world way too early. There’s no treatment for babies two months premature. Most babies weighing four pounds at birth don’t make it, but she did. The odds are stacked against her. She’s the 20th of 22 children and her parents…Continue reading How Wilma Rudolph survived polio and became the fastest woman in the world

Fannie Lou Hamer grew up as a sharecropper, earned the nickname "the First Lady of Civil Rights", became the co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Party and the co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, and she lived with a disability

Disabled Women in History: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Civil Rights Movement

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Fannie Lou Hamer grew up as a sharecropper, earned the nickname “the First Lady of Civil Rights”, became the co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Party and the co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and she lived with a disability. Fannie had a gift for captivating audiences with her forceful personality. She dealt with violence…Continue reading Disabled Women in History: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Civil Rights Movement

Disabled Women in History: Frida Kahlo and life with chronic pain

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This week’s disabled woman in history features the incomparable Frida Kahlo who lived with chronic pain. From the beginning of her life to the end, Frida was a force. I enjoyed every single minute of my research on her. I felt her physical pain, her emotional sorrows, and her triumphs. Frida was someone with lots…Continue reading Disabled Women in History: Frida Kahlo and life with chronic pain

In honor of Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Awareness Day here's a list of 6 influential disabled women with chronic fatigue syndrome or ME

6 influential women with disability from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME

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There are so many women in history who lived with disability and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). Unfortunately, there is little information about them available so they can’t individually be a part of my Disabled Women in History series. However, in honor of chronic fatigue syndrome / myalgic encephalomyelitis awareness month and…Continue reading 6 influential women with disability from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME

Florence Nightingale is famous for her nursing during the Crimean War, but many don't know she also a disability and spent much of her life bedridden. Was her illness Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or Myalgic Encephalitis?

Disabled Women in History: Florence Nightingale and Fibromyalgia

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Florence Nightingale and Fibromyalgia seem like an unusual parring, but May is Fibromyalgia Awareness Month and it’s time to raise awareness of Florences’ Fibromyalgia like symptoms that disabled her for most of her life. She was a hero and inspiration to many women through nursing, but no matter how hard she worked, doctors still said…Continue reading Disabled Women in History: Florence Nightingale and Fibromyalgia

Noor Inayat Khan was a WWII hero, and she lived with a circulatory disorder. She was one of the first female wireless operators to be sent into France. She was sold out by a French women and sent to Dachau to die in the gas chamber.

Disabled Women in History: Noor Inayat Khan WWII Spy and Indian Princess

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Midnight December 13th, 1944 disabled spy Noor Inayat Khan entered Dachau, the first-ever concentration camp built by Hitler. Like so many others Noor and the other prisoners walked underneath the sign Arbeit Macht Frei,  but there would be no work for Noor in Dachau. As they were locked into cells that night, Noor and her…Continue reading Disabled Women in History: Noor Inayat Khan WWII Spy and Indian Princess

Virginia Hall was a disabled amputee who became a spy. She was instrumental in setting up a resistance network in France, and gave the Allies intel leading to Normandy

Disabled women in history: Virginia Hall the WWII Spy

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May 1940 Her hip screamed with pain from continually pressing down on the clutch with her prosthetic foot, but she knew she couldn’t stop. Evacuees crowded the roads as the bombs flew all around. There were death and suffering everywhere. But American and disabled woman Virginia Hall was not about to give up.  Virginia Hall:…Continue reading Disabled women in history: Virginia Hall the WWII Spy

Barbara Jordan was the first African American since reconstruction to be elected to the Texas senate. And that was just the first barrier that she crossed.

Disabled Women in History: Barbara Jordan breaking barriers

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Today’s badass disabled woman is Barbara Jordan. Her story includes so many “firsts” it’s hard to keep track of them all.  A not exhaustive list of Barbara Jordan’s firsts: First African American to give the keynote address at either party’s political convention First African American to serve in the Texas State Senate since Reconstruction First…Continue reading Disabled Women in History: Barbara Jordan breaking barriers