Tamiment Library Disability Covid Chronicles Web Collection

CDS is delighted to announce the launch of the Disability Covid Chronicles Web Collection at the NYU Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. This collection contains 151 archived social media posts, opinion pieces, petitions, event listings, videos, photographs, art exhibitions, government documents, and toolkits produced by disabled activists, writers, and artists in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the years 2020-2024. 

 

Though the Disability Covid Chronicles project website will remain live into the foreseeable future, we wanted to ensure that it is formally archived for decades to come. This is especially urgent given the ephemeral nature of digital, web-based media, as well as the corporate consolidation of media platform ownership (including the loss of “Disability Twitter”) and the political interference with government websites and archives—which have only intensified since this project began.  We also note that this archive documents projects by disability justice leaders who have passed—including Alice Wong and Stacey Park Milbern—and we are honored to play a small role in preserving their legacies, among many others’ contributions.

 

As such, we are grateful to the Tamiment librarians for preserving this critical archive of disabled and chronically ill life in pandemic times. The posts are archived in an accessible format and with permission, and many include summaries or context written by the contributors to the edited collection How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic (NYU Press, 2025).

 

The Tamiment archivists have also preserved the related New York City COVID-19 Web Activism Collection, consisting of archived websites on topics such as tenants rights, workers organizing surrounding unsafe working conditions, racism, and decarceration.