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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

StoryCorps to Record Stories of the Disability Experience in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Chicago

To mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, StoryCorps in San Francisco is reserving a number of sessions from July 2014 – December 2014 for members of the disability community to record their stories. People are also welcome to record their stories at the Atlanta and Chicago StoryCorps locations as well.

How it works: Two people who know each other come to one of 3 stationary booths, located in San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago, to record a meaningful conversation with each other, in any format and language that they choose. For the Disability Visibility Project, feel free to share your stories about the disability experience. What was life like before and after the ADA? How did it impact your life? What do you see in the future for people with disabilities?

After a 40-minute recording session, each participant pair goes home with a broadcast quality CD of the conversation that just took place and, with their permission, a copy of the conversation also gets archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

All reservations at the booth are free, although a donation is always appreciated. Depending on community response, more sessions will be added in 2015 for the SF Bay Area disability community. 

Interested?

SF Bay Area only: To make a reservation, go to the reservation web page and use the password ‘storycorps’. In the event you cannot keep your reservation, please email Project Coordinator Alice Wong ([email protected]) with at least two weeks’ notice so that others can participate.

San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta: You are always free to schedule an interview through their general reservation system. If you have any difficulty accessing the website, you can call StoryCorps’ toll free number: 1-800-850-4406, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in English and Spanish.

Be sure to tag ‘Disability Visibility Project’ in the Notes section of the online reservation form if you want to contribute your story to this collection.

If no general reservations are available, please consider signing up for their wait list.

The StoryCorps MobileBooth travels across the United States as well.

Comments

  1. Linda L Halvorson says

    Great news. Should also have one session at Berkeley.