Action for Access

Changing Perceptions of Disability in American Life

  • Emmaus Home buildings surrounded by land
  • Chapel building from the front surrounded by trees
  • Male residents gather on the front steps of their dormitory
  • Female Department, or dormitory
  • Five doctors and three nurses stand on a staircase in front of a stone building
  • Beds line the walls in a female ward
  • Men sit in a sunroom
  • Women wash dishes in the dining room
  • A female resident picks apples
  • Female residents sit outside the dormitory
  • Beds line all four walls of a ward.
  • Men and women gather on the front steps of a building
  • Women ironing clothes
  • Men stand out front of a building in a hand-colored photograph
  • Side view of a stone dormitory building
  • Women and children around a table are dyeing Easter eggs
  • One man looks at the camera while two men have their backs turned
  • A group of young men wearing sports jerseys
  • Three young men receive medals
  • Parents sit around a table with two children. A man stands in an apron that reads
  • Three women hand coupons to a man while a van sits behind them.
  • An instructor leans over two children who are reading papers
  • Architect drawing of the Rainbow Village building complex
  • Four men stand together as one cuts the ribbon to open a building while also holding a little girl
  • Children ride miniature horses
  • St. Louis Arc athletes receive medals
  • Two girls kiss each cheek of a young boy
  • A girl is guided in swinging a tennis racket
  • A young man studies flash cards with the help of a young woman
  • Three actors, two in wheelchairs, act in a skit
  • A group of actors, several in wheelchairs, act out a skit
  • Lisi Bansen, a dancer in a wheelchair, raises her leg high while holding the hand of another actor.
  • A woman leads a group of older men and women through an acting exercise
  • A drawing of people dancing, with the caption
  • Drawing of a flip-flop, a tennis shoe, and a wheelchair wheel.
  • A man in a wheelchair plays tennis
  • A man in a wheelchair prepares to play tennis
  • A woman in a wheelchair waits on a tennis court
  • A wood-framed and wicker-backed wheelchair
  • A wooden invalid chair shaped like a box with handles has a built-in chamber pot.
  • A wood and steel wheelchair
  • A white round plate with the Braille alphabet around the edges
  • A small electronic piece that consists of a pop-up screen attached to a keyboard.
  • A black plastic keyboard with a vinyl carrying case.
  • A red and green hand-woven rug
  • A small TTY that looks like a computer monitor with a built-in keyboard.
  • Child's leg brace attached to a leather shoe
  • Braille typewriter
  • Colored sands poured into a cylindrical glass container to create a design.
  • A metal iron lung. A metal tube approximately 6 feet long that a patient would lie in, head and feet emerging from each end.
  • Small camera-like hearing device
  • Conch shell-shaped brass sound amplifier
  • Silhouette of a woman cut from paper
  • A ram's horn ear trumpet
  • Prosthetic leg
  • Metal large woman's brooch used as a sound amplifier
  • A red textile tube has an ivory mouthpiece on one end and an earpiece on the other.
  • Wooden crutches
  • Metal table centerpiece with six round sound-collecting openings
  • Turtle-shell breathing apparatus with two rounded sides that fit on the chest and back to act like a vacuum to help the user breathe
  • Black metal hearing device that fits under a man's beard and funnels sound from a front opening up to the pieces that fit into the ear

This picture, taken around 1900, shows the wide range of ages among the early residents of Emmaus Home. Residents had a variety of disabilities and levels of ability but lived communally. They benefited from a higher standard of care than many other people with disabilities were receiving in the same era.

Courtesy of Emmaus Homes

Male residents gather on the front steps of their dormitory
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