A multimedia oral history thesis for the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia University. 

 From September 2012 through September 2013, I collaborated with self-advocates who have Down syndrome for my thesis in the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia University, conducting life history interviews, and working with narrators to edit stories for a website. Initially, we published the stories as a collection entitled Nothing About Us Without Us on the storytelling platform Cowbird, in order to share those experiences and reflections with an audience that may not otherwise hear the voices of individuals with Down syndrome. In 2020, I worked with the design studio Planthouse to create a new, more stable, website to house these stories: Self Advocate Stories.

By serving as a conduit, curator, and a collaborative narrator, my aim is to present these voices in such a way that combats stigma with dignity, challenges the myth of dependence with stories of agency, and showcases the diversity of perspectives and experiences of individuals with Down syndrome.

I have a personal stake in this project. When my second child, Jonah, was born in March of 2012, we found out that he has Down syndrome. Once I moved past the shock of his diagnosis, I was shocked, saddened, and outraged to discover the ableist assumptions I'd had about people with Down syndrome, without even realizing it. With this thesis I confronted, challenged and expanded my own limited views, and in sharing these stories more broadly, I hope to help others do the same.

My greatest hope, as a parent, as an oral historian, and as a partner in collaborative narration with my interviewees, is for this project to do justice to the voices of these self-advocates, in the service of the world they work toward: one where they are heard, and, in the words of David Egan, seen as “one of us, not one among us.”