Voices of Change

In an era when children with physical disabilities received care and therapy in residential facilities, such as Memorial Home for Crippled Children, located in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel … [Read more...] about Paul O’Hanlon, Kathleen Peer Kleinmann, and Brenda Dare: disability rights advocates and childhood residents of the Memorial Home for Crippled Children

Shirley Pickens retired in 2020 as director of Polk Center, a state institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Venango County. Shirley spent her entire professional … [Read more...] about Shirley Pickens: director, Polk Center, 2008-2020

Father George Strohmeyer, co-founder of L’Arche Erie, and Mary Ann Zarnick, long-time staff member, talk about their introduction to the spiritual mission of the L’Arche movement, the founding of … [Read more...] about Father George Strohmeyer, co-founder of L’Arche Erie & Mary Ann Zarnick, long-time staff member

Nancy Murray, disability rights leader, and her daughter, Marisa Niwa, are well known in the Western Pennsylvania disability community. Nancy is the president of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh, an … [Read more...] about Nancy Murray, disability rights leader, and her daughter, Marisa Niwa

Randy Gorske of Crawford County and M.J. Bartelmay of Mercer County are Western Pennsylvania disability right leaders who opened doors for people with intellectual and developmental … [Read more...] about Randy Gorske of Crawford County and M.J. Bartelmay of Mercer County: Western PA disability rights leaders

From the 1990s through 2010s, Ceil Belasco and Liz Healey were at the forefront of the movement for inclusive education for students with disabilities in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. They worked to … [Read more...] about Ceil Belasco and Liz Healey: advocates for inclusive education in the Pittsburgh Public Schools

Danny Flavin (1946-2018) was one of seven children in a large Irish American family in a Pittsburgh suburb. He was born with a genetic condition that resulted in intellectual disabilities. His … [Read more...] about Danny Flavin: interview with sisters of Danny Flavin, who lived for 56 years at Polk State Center

As a graduate student in special education at Pennsylvania’s Clarion University in the early 1970s, Kate Bayer spent nine months teaching school-age children at Polk State Center, an institution for … [Read more...] about Kate Bayer: special education teacher, Polk State Center, early 1970s

At just 14 years-old, Blair County native Paul Dick (1940 – 2010) was diagnosed with polio. He began to experience paralysis and use a wheelchair. He started treatments at Warm Springs, a polio … [Read more...] about Paul Dick: accessible transportation advocate