Opening lecture by Anaïs Van Ertvelde: "Yeehaa, I am disabled!"

From 'Hooray Handicapped!' to 'Save on rockets, not us' - Fifty years of multiform disability activism in Belgium.

When we think of the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, we see images of students occupying university and Dolle Minas rocking beauty pageants. People with Disabilities? They are missing in that picture. A hole in historiography and our collective memory, it turns out. It was during this period that a wave of disability activism was launched that can be felt to this day. People with a disability in their resistance to the undressing of the welfare state, gave full criticism of institutionalization and patronizing, and imagine a completely different world for themselves.

About Anaïs Van Ertvelde:

Anaïs Van Ertvelde studies the history of people with disabilities and is preparing a doctorate under the supervision of Monika Baar (Leiden University). She regularly writes columns for the Flemish Press and is also known for the book Dirty cloths that she published together with Heleen de Bruyne.