March 2026 Inclusive History eNews

In this Issue:

• News of the Field
• Disability History News & Resources
• Events @ Emerging America 
• Other Events
• Teaching Resources 
• New at the Library of Congress 

Featured post this issue: Tools for Teaching the Disability Rights Movement: Classroom Friendly Video and Other Accessible Curriculum for Teaching the Disability Rights Movement

Featured Event: Teaching Disability and Human Rights: 2nd Annual Virtual Conference - April 7 - 5:00-7:30pm EST - Virtual conference information.

News of the Field

• Community Advisors needed for the 2026 Civics Project Showcases - View video of 2024 showcases - Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 
• Grants for Civics Teaching & Learning and for Genocide Education - Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education - due March 30. 
• Nominate a History Teacher of the Year for your state by April 30 - Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 
• Kim Pinckney of the New Jersey Education Association just authored, "The Iterative Edge: The NJEA Consortium’s Design Process in Support of Inclusive Education," about their focused effort to support the teaching of mandated content. Journal of Applied Instructional Design. 

Disability History News & Resources

• How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law - (12 minutes) - RetroReport. 
• Second Quarterly Museum Gathering - March 25, 2026 - 6-8pm Eastern Time - Disability History and Culture Collective (DHACC) and I Love You-Lead On Community. Register for Museum Gathering. 
• Long Road Home - video on creation of a memorial in Georgia for graves at the state hospital (25 minutes) - posted by Disability Thinking Weekday. 
• Disability and the History of Astronomy - notice of group meetings March 3, April 7 & May 5 includes topical bibliography - Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
• Recording of talk: "Remembering Fernald: Uncovering the Hidden History of Disability in Massachusetts" - hybrid talk by Alex Green - Massachusetts Historical Society. 
• March 18 - 7pm Eastern Time, Alan Holdsworth re Bob Kafka and ADAPT - Justin's Room. 
• April 6-11 - Hybrid - 5th Annual Symposium for Disability and Accessibility at Yale - In(Visibility): The Creation of Narratives and their Legacies. 
• April 8 - 7pm Eastern Time, Judge Rottenberg Center, the Use of Corporal Punishment and the Attempt to Stop It - Devva's Room. 
• Opening in October: The Dot Experience - Louisville, Kentucky - Fully accessible museum created by the American Printing House. 
• Snapshots of the unseen: How we focused Long COVID in a recent photo exhibition - The Sick Times - news source on Long Covid. 
• You know someone with Long COVID. They need you to ask about it genuinely. The Sick Times.

Events @ Emerging America

Learn more about current Emerging America professional development events. 

RECORDING AND SLIDES: Practical Strategies for Supporting Immigrant Students with Disabilities - Immigrant Learning Center

• From March 10 webinar: How Can Educators Support Immigrant Students with Disabilities? - Immigrant Learning Center.
  • Claudia Enaldi, Lasell University spoke about Ensuring True Access to Education for Multilingual Learners with Disabilities. 
  • Tamara Schlez, El Futuro spoke about Culturally Responsive Approaches for the Latino Community and students with ADHD. 
  • Rich Cairn of Emerging America shared core strategies to Make Instruction Accessible in Content-Rich History. 

Disability and Young Voters: Access, Legislation and Mobilizing Young Voters - A National Civic Learning Discussion

• RESCHEDULED–FINALLY for April 22 - 7pm Eastern Time - Explore the state of voting by people with disabilities and by young voters. Discuss strategies and programs for your school to register students with disabilities to vote and to prepare all students to make a successful plan to vote. Register for the rescheduled webinar. (Originally part of National Civic Learning Week.) 
  • Lisa Schur, Co-Director, Program for Disability Research, Rutgers University 
  • Doug Kruse, Co-Director, Program for Disability Research, Rutgers University
  • Ashleigh McKenna, Chief of Staff, New Voters
  • Noorya Hayat, Senior Researcher, Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), Tisch College, Tufts University 
  • Rich Cairn, Emerging America - Moderator
• Part of National Civic Learning Week.

National Council for History Education - Workshop

• Conference March 26-28 - Montgomery, Alabama. Info and registration. 
  • Saturday: “Tools for Guiding Student Research on Disability and Its Impacts” - Keene State College, and “Building Access to DBQs for Multilingual Learners" - Mass Council for the Social Studies.  

Teaching Disability and Human Rights: 2nd Annual Virtual Teaching Disability History Conference - Information re. April 7 conference. 

• April 7 - 5:00-7:30pm Eastern Time 
  • Keynote: Disability and Human Rights - Hezzy Smith, Harvard Law School
  • 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act: Landmark for Disability and Human Rights - Hope Bibens, Harkin Institute, Drake University. 
  • Teaching Intersectional Disability History and Human Rights - Tia Hinz, Teacher & Sarah Wiederecht, Teacher - Human Rights Educators USA.  
    Discussion with the Producer of the Film: “How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law” - Jill Rosenbaum, Producer, RetroReport.
    Impacts of Integrating Disability History into Teacher Education
  • Curriculum and Other Teaching Resources
  • Register for the April 7 conference. 

2nd Annual Teaching Disability History Conference - Tom Harkin Institute, Drake University - Information re. July 14 conference. 

• July 14 - Des Moines, Iowa
  • Presentations will include disability history and strategies for teaching disability history. Watch for details! 
  • Register for the July conference. 

Teaching Disability History Interest Group

• Teachers, disability advocates, historians, higher education students and allied organizations meet quarterly to share resources and discuss how to advance the field. ASL and CART provided. Supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant. Next meeting is March 19, 5:00-6:00pm Eastern Time. To join the group, email Rich Cairn - rcairn @ collaborative.org. 

Other Events

In-person, unless noted. Hybrid = in-person and virtual options. 

• March 9-13 - National Civic Learning Week - in-person and virtual events coast to coast. (See info above for Emerging America webinar on the vote on March 11.) 
• March 13 - Sturbridge - Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies Conference. 
• March 16 - 7-8:15pm Eastern Time - Webinar - "Echoes of the Holocaust: Strengthening Memory with Holocaust Literature" - Facing History and Ourselves. 
• March 23 - 2pm Eastern Time - Virtual event - "Maybe Never Again: A Women's History Month Commemoration" - women in the Spanish Civil War - Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. 
• March 26-28 - Montgomery, Alabama - Diasporas: Histories of Movement and Cultural Exchange - conference of the National Council for History Education. 
• April 11 - HistoryFest - Westfield State University. 
• April 15 - 7:30-9pm Eastern Time - "Deepening Civic Learning through Community Connections" - Democratic Knowledge Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education. 
• April 29 - 7-8pm Eastern Time - Webinar - "Standing Up to Bigotry and Hate: Tools for Young People in a Complex World" - Facing History and Ourselves. 
• Three Journeys: Atlanta, New Orleans–and Morocco with Facing History. 
• June 16-20 - Prairie View A&M University, Texas - Teaching African American Studies Summer Institute: Teaching the Digital Diaspora - National Humanities Center. 
• July 26 - August 1 - Schoodic, Maine - The Civic Summer Institute for Learning and Teaching - Democratic Knowledge Project, Harvard University. 
• July 27-30 - Three Branches Institute - Washington, DC - Free program for educators - apply by March 1 - White House Historical Association, Supreme Court Historical Society, and U.S. Capitol Historical Society. 

Teaching Resources

New at the Library of Congress

• Stories from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Resource Guide - Library of Congress. 
• Resources for Women’s History Month: Teaching with the Library Blog Roundup. 
• “Dies Irae”: Capturing the Apocalyptic Mood of the 1929 Stock Market Crash. 
• Organizations that Promote Literacy Across the Globe: Announcing a Literacy Awards Webinar Series - April 8 to July 22. 
• Sparking Student Curiosity with Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photographs. 

About Emerging America's Inclusive History News

Committed to Access and Inclusion of All Learners in Civics, History and Social Studies 

Created in response to teacher requests in 2013, the History eNews emailed monthly short descriptions and links of quality history and social studies events and resources. Today, items appear in an Emerging America blog page, with regular Constant Contact email notices to our subscribers. Sign up free at the bottom of the page. 

We welcome your news & events! 

• Published on the first of each month, updated continuously through the month. 
• Submit items any time to rcairn @ collaborative.org. 
• Archived at: http://EmergingAmerica.org/blog. 
• Register for CES events: https://www.collaborative.org/professional-development/events/.
• Teacher-created lessons, primary source sets, assessments, & teaching strategies at: http://EmergingAmerica.org. 
• Follow Emerging America on LinkedIn.  
• Email rcairn @ collaborative.org to be added to or removed from this list. 
• Content created and featured in partnership with the Teaching with Primary Sources program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.

Image Credits

• Screen shot from How Activists Fought for Rights for People With Disabilities, and Made Them the Law - RetroReport. 
• Photo by Immigrant Learning Center. 
• Mrs. Harold L. Ickes, wife of the Secretary of the Interior guides three newly-arrived Japanese-Americans on a tour of the Ickes Farm near Olney, Maryland. Photo by Howard Hollem. (1943). Library of Congress.