This lesson plan is a guide for how you can have a discussion with your students about the history of the ADA and, more specifically, the Capitol Crawl, which was a protest that was successful in urging congress to vote on the ADA. The lessons center around a 9 minute video that tells the story of the Capitol Crawl. There is a worksheet that goes with this lesson.

Students will select a Black Disabled artist from Leroy Moore’s Black Disabled Art History 101. Students will research their selected artist and their works. Students will choose a piece of artwork created by this artist and analyze it using a critical artistic framework. This lesson can be adapted for a wide range of ages.

Image description: Cover photo of Black Disabled Art History 101

As our friends from Engaging America state, “Primary sources … can provide entry points and deepen exploration into historical events. Primary sources add immediacy, such as the faces in a photograph, the emotional tone of a drawing or song, or the complex look of a handwritten document. Documents from multiple points of view can illuminate conflicting ideas and events. Varied media, including maps, oral histories, published reports, and graphs offer many options for connection and investigation”.

We share these collections or primary sources as tools to continue introducing disability into the conversation from natural perspectives, using disabled people to tell their own stories whenever possible.

Image Description: Article from Dallas Times Herald, Wednesday, January 14, 1986 in section “Community Close-Up” titled “Police on sidewalk wheelchair ramps changed”
Full image description can be found at: https://adaptmuseum.net/gallery/picture.php?/451/category/16

In this lesson plan, you’ll find six modules that you can mix and match, that all teach about different aspects of disability rights and disability justice.

Image Description: Education Amplifier’s illustration of Lydia X.Z. Brown

The purpose of this lesson is to humanize the experience of disability by focusing on student-voice videos, recognize diversity within the disability community, and discuss ways to promote accessibility. This is the first in a series of 5 lessons by Washington State’s One Out of Five Disability History and Pride Project.

Image Description: Groups of students sit and stand, talking in clusters. The profiles of the students of different ages, races, and abilities is on a colorful background of yellow, orange, and green. The dominant image is the silhouette of a male student in dark blue reading a book. The title is: One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride Project. “One” and “five” are spelled out in American Sign Language. At the bottom, Braille reads: “pride” and “history.”]

The purpose of this lesson is to shift stereotypes and limited ways of thinking about people with disabilities to consider the full range of disability experiences from an intersectional perspective. This is the second in a series of 5 lessons by Washington State’s One Out of Five Disability History and Pride Project.

Image Description: Groups of students sit and stand, talking in clusters. The profiles of the students of different ages, races, and abilities is on a colorful background of yellow, orange, and green. The dominant image is the silhouette of a male student in dark blue reading a book. The title is: One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride Project. “One” and “five” are spelled out in American Sign Language. At the bottom, Braille reads: “pride” and “history.”]

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students how to recognize ableism and its harmful effects, be allies in solidarity with people with disabilities, and actively and intentionally build inclusive communities. This is the fifth in a series of 5 lessons by Washington State’s One Out of Five Disability History and Pride Project.

Image Description: Groups of students sit and stand, talking in clusters. The profiles of the students of different ages, races, and abilities is on a colorful background of yellow, orange, and green. The dominant image is the silhouette of a male student in dark blue reading a book. The title is: One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride Project. “One” and “five” are spelled out in American Sign Language. At the bottom, Braille reads: “pride” and “history.”]

The purpose of this lesson is to increase awareness of local and state disability history, including discrimination, advocacy, and grassroots movement. This is the fourth in a series of 5 lessons by Washington State’s One Out of Five Disability History and Pride Project.

Image Description: Groups of students sit and stand, talking in clusters. The profiles of the students of different ages, races, and abilities is on a colorful background of yellow, orange, and green. The dominant image is the silhouette of a male student in dark blue reading a book. The title is: One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride Project. “One” and “five” are spelled out in American Sign Language. At the bottom, Braille reads: “pride” and “history.”]

The purpose of this lesson is to teach the history of the disability rights movement in the United States, as well as diversity within that movement. This lesson includes important people, policies, and events in disability history in the United States. This is the third in a series of 5 lessons by Washington State’s One Out of Five Disability History and Pride Project.

Image Description: Groups of students sit and stand, talking in clusters. The profiles of the students of different ages, races, and abilities is on a colorful background of yellow, orange, and green. The dominant image is the silhouette of a male student in dark blue reading a book. The title is: One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride Project. “One” and “five” are spelled out in American Sign Language. At the bottom, Braille reads: “pride” and “history.”]

Teaching the story of the 504 occupation, the focus of the Patient No More exhibit, will undoubtedly leave students with a new perspective toward living with a disability. “Patient No More” offers a story about the creativity and strength that comes out of the disability community, an incredible example of how change can happen from the bottom up. It's also a story about how disability rights have changed the lives of all Americans in ways they might not realize.

Image Description: “Patient No More - People with disabilities securing civil rights” black and white photo of protestors with capitol building in the background, many in wheelchairs, one with a sign on the back of their wheelchair that says “We Shall Overcome”

Portrait of the Whole Person is a curriculum for elementary school students designed to teach students how disability rights fit into the broader civil rights movement, to perceive disability as a reflection of societal views of differences, and to treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity. It contains four distinct lesson plans comprised of three in-class instruction lesson plans and one lesson plan governing the research and writing of a biographical sketch and creation of a portrait of a notable person with a disability. It is also complete with a graphic organizer, rubrics, a power point, and a list of references students can use for research.

Image Description: Disability Rights Washington logo with “Portrait of a Whole Person Curriculum Overview” written below and drawings of 3 different people in colored pencil.