DDA was founded by Megan Barron in 2011 with the “Accessibility Matters” campaign.
In 2014, Jay Ruckelshaus organized a retreat called “Beyond Disability, Beyond Compliance” to discuss the need to go beyond the minimum standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act in order to enable full and equal participation in the life of the community.
In 2016, DDA president Cuquis Robledo and Jay Ruckelshaus discussed the inaccessible aspects of campus life. By working toward greater accessibility, we hope to make Duke a place that more students with disabilities will want to attend.
In 2017, we became the first affiliate of the DREAM Network (Disability Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring), a national organization by and for college students with disabilities, sponsored by the National Center for College Students with Disabilities (NCCSD) based at the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD). They even wrote about us in their blog, “College While Disabled”!
Also in 2017, our president Cuquis Robledo completed a documentary on Disability at Duke.
In 2018 we organized a “Disability and the Arts” showcase at the Nasher museum featuring the exciting talents of three invited artists.
In 2019, our faculty advisor Marion Quirici was invited to give a TEDx talk about our activism. Later that year we helped the Health Humanities Lab organize a large conference on Disability in the Disciplines, in which around 250 people participated, many of whom were from the community outside Duke.
In 2020, we had almost realized our dream of founding a Disability Cultural Center when COVID-19 interrupted our plans.
We had a Zoom send-off party for an amazing cohort of graduating seniors and allies, and the Health Humanities Lab published features on DDA members Bryan Rusch, Kevin Solomon, and Ali Sloan.
In the fall of 2020, we finally got a physical space for the Cultural Center! We also formed the Disability Studies and Health Humanities Interest Group, with over 250 student members. The student group was led by student Maddie Fowler, the first student to our knowledge to complete a Program II undergraduate degree in Disability Studies at Duke. We have been working with faculty and students since 2018 to make Disability Studies & Health Humanities an official degree at Duke University.
In November 2021, we held a well-attended student Speak Out for our proposed minor. We participated in campus-wide dialogue about the need for such a minor, and its potential to promote rigorous critical thinking and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Since 2021, DDA has focused its efforts to become a community-centric organization, including hosting Disability Pride Week, monthly socials, and cross-institutional dinners and conversations.
Disability Pride Week:
DDA changed the name of “Disability Awareness Week” to “Disability Pride Week” in 2017 to celebrate disability culture and assert the value of disabled identities.
For the past several years, Duke students have come together the final week of March for a week of activism and events.
Disability Pride Week 2021 & 2022
