When Barbara Floyd and Kim Brownlee decided to organize an exhibit on archival materials that document disability history in the Toledo area, they knew they’d raise awareness about northwest Ohio’s role in that history and highlight the holdings of the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections.

They didn’t know they’d be honored for their work.

Barbara Floyd, left, and Kim Brownlee hold the 2008 Community Access Award the Canaday Center received from the Ability Center of Greater Toledo for the exhibit, “From Institutions to Independence: A History of People With Disabilities in Northwest Ohio.”

The Ability Center of Greater Toledo recently presented its 2008 Community Access Award to the Canaday Center for its exhibit, “From Institutions to Independence: A History of People With Disabilities in Northwest Ohio.” Each year, the Ability Center bestows the honor in recognition of extraordinary efforts to raise awareness and/or improve the lives of persons living with disabilities.

“While conducting the research for this exhibit, we were amazed to uncover many aspects of our local history that were largely unknown,” Floyd, director of the Canaday Center, said. “We hope that this exhibit is the beginning of an effort to raise our historical consciousness about significant ways northwest Ohio has contributed to disability history. It means so much to be recognized by the disability community for this work.”

“Anyone visiting the exhibit will be awed by the overall scope of this project,” said Tim Harrington, executive director of the Ability Center. “From the moment one enters, the visitor is looking into the eyes of our history. It seems to immediately command attention, even reverence.”

The exhibit looks at the lives of those with mental illness, vision and hearing impairment, and physical and developmental disabilities. It also focuses on the impact of the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s on Toledo, and how local organizations sought to provide vocational rehabilitation and employment to the disabled. It includes an examination of the impact of the eugenics movement on the disabled. And the exhibit analyzes the disability rights movement, and how organizations and services changed to provide more independence for the disabled.

Floyd, Brownlee, Canaday Center staff and student assistants spent about one year preparing materials and artifacts the center has collected since 2001 when the Disability Studies Program was established at the University. Of note are the personal papers of Hugh Gallagher, disability scholar and activist who wrote the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and the book, FDR’s Splendid Deception.

“This exhibit has meant a lot to many members of the disability community,” Brownlee, manuscripts librarian and assistant university archivist, said. “It has allowed them to see their history revealed and celebrated in a public forum. It has been an emotional experience for many, including those of us who researched and created it, and I am proud to have had the privilege of being a part of it.”

The free exhibition is on display Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Feb. 27. Evening and weekend tours are available by appointment.

The exhibit and several special events that were held in October and November were funded through a grant from the Office of the Provost’s Academic Excellence Program.

For more information or to schedule a special viewing of the exhibition, contact the Canaday Center at (419) 530-4480.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 11:38 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Books.
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