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

Rainbow Village ribbon-cutting from 1979. From left to right: Howard Sturgeon, Henry Keller, Robert Sunnen, Amy Clements, and Sam Landfather. The approximately 70 residents of Rainbow Village live in group homes and receive in-home care to enable them to live independently. The success of Rainbow Village led to the establishment of a respite care program and a community-based home. The St. Louis Arc continues to develop programs in the community so that people with developmental disabilities have a choice of where and how they want to live.

Courtesy of St. Louis Arc

Four men stand together as one cuts the ribbon to open a building while also holding a little girl
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