From the outset of the pandemic in the United States in March 2020, disability activists rallied to protest plans for medical rationing and to refute the flawed logic of mainstream journalists who “reassured” readers that only older people and those with disabilities would die from COVID-19. Through webinars, Zoom conferences, podcasts, social media posts, and in-person protests, these activists have continued to demonstrate disability expertise regarding quarantine, congregate housing, accessible tele-work and tele-education, media activism, disability bioethics, distributed networks of support and mutual aid. People across the disability spectrum have described their fears and negative medical encounters, as well as innovative approaches to survival, in opinion pieces, online advocacy, listservs, direct actions, and consultations with city and hospital administrators. Yet these voices and experiences remain marginalized in mainstream discussions of the impact and future consequences of the pandemic, despite the fact that 25% of Americans identify as having a disability. Much of this work has happened online: on websites, through virtual campaigns and actions, and via social media. While this strategy is crucial, especially given the nature of the crisis and the health concerns of many activists, online content is highly ephemeral and is easily lost or deleted.

We hope to render this disability expertise more permanent and public, providing models of disability justice for post-COVID living. Based on our researchers’ community membership and existing fields of study, our initial interviews focus on: Black disabled activists (especially those who are part of Black Disabled Lives Matter); Black maternal mental health; autistic people; people with mobility impairments; people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS); people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; and parents, advocates, and self-advocates working on housing support and reform. However, we welcome oral histories and artifacts from anyone with a disability, defined broadly, to borrow from Patty Berne of Sins Invalid as including “people with physical impairments, people who identify as ‘sick’ or are chronically ill, ‘psych’ survivors and those who identify as ‘crazy,’ neurodiverse people, people with cognitive impairments, people who are a sensory minority.” In addition to the value such “archives of the present” will have for future disability activists, artists, documentarians, and scholars, our collection documents the influence of this unanticipated public health crisis on the everyday lives of disabled people, and how these changes endure over time, reshaping the body politic.