Student Research Guides
Developed by Keene State College and Emerging America with a Teaching with Primary Sources grant from the Library of Congress. Each guide includes a brief overview of the topic, guiding questions, topic ideas, links to primary source collections, links to secondary sources, suggested search terms, glossary and bibliography.
- Asylums and Psychiatric Hospitals
- Public Education and Disability
- Schools for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
- Disability and the History of Eugenics
- Independent Living Movement and Deinstitutionalization
- Sports and Disability
- Veterans and Disability
- New Hampshire Disability History Stories and Sources
Additional Primary and Secondary Sources on Disability History
- Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum - From Emerging America, includes instructional materials, primary and secondary sources on topics across more than 250 years of American history. The accessible curriculum deploys nearly 300 primary sources. Many lessons feature additional research ideas and resources.
- Disability History through Primary Sources - Emerging America's portal links to scores of primary source collections and to lessons and other resources on disability history.
- The Struggle for Disability Rights - Overview of Disability History - 2,500-word introduction to the topic of disability history written by Emerging America as a chapter in the 2026 National History Day Theme Book.
Exemplary Student Research Projects on Disability History
- Windows on History - Student Websites, including award-winning sites on disability history. Featured as part of Emerging America's guide to student-created local history projects.
- “Completely Healthy Children” - The Persistence of Disabled Children and Their Allies During Aktion T4 and the Holocaust. By Wyatt Edwards.
Teaching Disability History Across America: Primary Source Investigations by ALL Learners
These research guides were created in a partnership between Keene State College and Emerging America supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant. Learn more about the Teaching Disability History project.
Image Credit
Students at Sutton Middle School compare songs from different eras in history during an International Baccalaureate immersion day. Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages.