Our History began life in Spring 2000 as a media training project for Norfolk based disabled people. The team travelled around the county meeting other disabled people from many walks of life. Volunteers were invited to talk about their lives and contribute stories to this archive. We arranged their memories into themes and built this site around them.

The results are extraordinarily frank and revealing, and form the starting point for a valuable social and historical document. They begin to create a history that conventional records too often ignore - a history about disabled peoples' lives told by disabled people. We hope it will grow over the years as more training projects are run.

Every story casts fresh and sometimes controversial light on our society's attitudes towards disability. Some stories are harrowing, others entertaining, all are life affirming. Several people have discussed their education at special and mainstream schools, and its impact on their later lives. Others talk about their personal relationships and if and how being disabled makes any difference to them. Many have described their treatment, both good and bad, in the hands of the medical and caring professions.

Each of these first hand experiences force us to examine and rethink our cultural assumptions about disability.

Funding

The project was funded by the European Social Fund, Create! and Norfolk Adult Education Service.

Interviews, Video Production and Web Design

Mark Womersley, David Gillingham, Jeremy Rees, Shaun Gotts, Jayne Wilde, Ann Young, Britta Pollmuller, Dick Catt, Adrian High, Zoe Breen

Video Editor

Mark Womersley

The Interviewees

(With apologies to those whose stories we have not been able to include on the site.)

Keith Roads, Sylvia Buck, Barry Oldham, Linda Cutting, Sadie Mckay,Geoffrey Goldsmith, Muriel Smith, Margorie Dunsford, Margaret Waghorn, Derek Brown, Olive Whiley, Dorothy Webb, George Webb, Jean Hoare, Ian Bentley, Betty Gooch, Colette Adamson, Ann Young, Peter Dix, Muriel Britain, Margaret (surname withheld), Stephanie Ash

Video Production Training

Martin Sercombe with Media Projects East

Web Design Training

Clive Stubbs

Project Management and Support

Martin Sercombe, Dick Catt, Ann Young, Bernard Godding, Richard Palser, Sarah McRobert

Here is a list of sites of potential interest to anyone interested in researching the oral, social or political histories of disabled people around the world.

Please mail us if you would like to add your site or others to the list.

Twentieth Century Vox

The BBC's excellent oral history web site with streaming audio.

(Not much disability specific material.)

Beyond Affliction

A major US based disability history project linked to an archive of 'evidence' and radio broadcasts.

The Disability Social History Project

A California based site with timelines, links, news and events.

Quote from Mission Statement: "This is an opportunity for disabled people to reclaim our history and determine how we want to define ourselves and our struggles. People with disabilities have an exciting and rich history that should be shared with the world."

AbleTV

An American site providing streaming video and audio programmes of interest to disabled people.

The Museum of disABILITY history

The Museum of disABILITY HISTORY is dedicated to the collection, preservation and display of artifacts pertaining to the history of people with disabilities. Located in Buffalo, New York, and on the World Wide Web, the museum offers educational exhibits and activities that expand community awareness.

Disability History Museum

A museum, a library, and a teachers resource. Membership only.

Disability History and Culture

Links to web sites about disability history, culture and disability studies.

Parents with Attitude

Parents with Attitude is committed to making visible the experience of disabled children and their families from a human rights perspective. Our work centres around the belief that our disabled children do not have to be changed or fixed; that all our children are ordinary children just as they are; that it is the experience offered by a disabling world that does not give them ordinary lives.

Several publications available from the site.

Landmarks in American disabled peoples history

A Historical paper published by the Berkleyan, a newspaper for the University of California.

BC Aboriginal Network on Disability Society

Aboriginal disabled people chronical their life experiences.

Disability Culture Awareness

Quote from home page: "Welcome to 'The stories of our Lives ' Personal accounts of our struggles, strengths,triumphs, the beautiful unfolding of a culture, rich in history, passion, and pride and it's all found here within these pages!"

History of disability

A useful links site.