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Class of 2014's WILL oral history project to air soon
Image by Gloria HaThe second part of the 90-minute radio documentary "Breaking Down Disability Barriers" will be coming out this Thanksgiving.Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 11:21am
As you celebrate with family and friends over Thanksgiving break, be sure to check out the radio documentary "Breaking Down Disability Barriers: the Journey Towards Equality at the University of Illinois" on WILL-AM 580 .
The hour-long program is a continuation of the documentary that came out last year, "Breaking Down Disability Barriers: The Legacy of Timothy Nugent." The split of the program is unusual, but was necessary due to the amount of material. Much of the material used was from the previous oral history projects.
"Tim Nugent was the one who started the whole disabilities program, and so we decided early on that it would probably take more than one interview with him, so we had a team of interns do that ahead of time," said Janet Morford, subfreshman social studies teacher and head of the WILL interns program. "The interviewer for that was Katherine Floess, who was a senior who worked on the project along with [senior] Sheela Gogula...In their subbie year, we had worked in part on issues of disabilities and wheelchair sports...It was really exciting to be able to go back and be able to use [material from Class of 2011's project]. It has a broader base."
This particular part of the program will highlight the experiences and thoughts of people involved in the Disability Rights movement in Champaign-Urbana. The class of 2014 interviewed the subjects for their oral history project during their subfreshmen year, along with the help of Uni interns at WILL.
"This project really takes advantage of the unique history of the university and its efforts to make places more accessible to people with disabilities," said Morford. "The University of Illinois was the first one to do that, so we're uniquely situated to tell that story."
"Breaking Down Disability Barriers: the Journey Towards Equality at the University of Illinois" will air Nov. 24 at 10 a.m on WILL-AM 580. It can also be heard on Nov. 25 at 11 a.m. Following these dates, the program will be made available online and put onto CDs, which can be purchased for $10 each.
