Last March, St. Paul-based Advocating Change Together (ACT) was approached by the Hungarian Eotvos Larand University asking for translation rights to make ACT’s Disability History Exhibit accessible to Hungarians. The answer was a quick YES!

The partnership between ACT and Hungary has resulted in an exhibit that will reach thousands of Hungarians as it tours the country’s major cites throughout 2008.

A press release by the Budapest History Museum states that “The Disability History Exhibit, a truly outstanding international undertaking in the field of disability studies, showcases collaboration on par with the Encyclopedia of Disability and similar projects.”

ACT Co-Director Rick Cardenas is pleased with the partnership and hopes that ACT will continue to make connections to spread the word about disability as a human right issue. “With the recent adoption of the UN Convention on the Right of People with Disabilities, folks in many places are just starting to think for the first time about these disability stories and issues,” says Cardenas, “The great thing about the ACT history exhibit is that it helps people see how far we’ve come, and how far we still need to go.”

By coincidence, BlueLaw International‘s Janet Lord, who has been collaborating with ACT in its work at the United Nations, happened to see the exhibit on a recent trip. “I was in Budapest attending a conference of the Hungarian Association for the Deaf. A couple of the organizers told me about a powerful exhibit they had just seen at the local history museum. I went to see it for myself and, surprise, it was from ACT. Oh my gosh, I thought, what a small world. I was really struck by how all of our separate empowerment efforts are really starting to build strong connections across the globe.”

The exhibit consists of twenty-seven panels of photos showing the milestones of the history of disability. Twenty-one of the panels were created by ACT. The remaining six—two focusing on Hungary, two on Europe as a whole, and two on the UN—were created by the Hungarian organizers.

The press release from the museum calls the exhibit “an effective tool of subverting set social attitudes and thinking regarding disability.”