Never Fade Away: Untold Stories of Developmental Disability

An oral history podcast where we explore the untold stories of people with developmental disabilities. Produced by LADD, a leading nonprofit advocacy and services organization for people with disabilities in the Midwest, Never Fade Away preserves personal narratives from Ohioans with developmental disabilities—before and after the ADA.

Each episode features stories from individuals who lived through institutional systems, such as the Columbus State Institute and Orient, alongside younger voices who have only known integrated classrooms and evolving opportunities for independent living. These oral histories reveal resilience, challenge, change, and hope.

Neurospicy host Kate Siahaan-Rigg guides these conversations with empathy and creative insight, bringing these memories into the present. Never Fade Away is a tribute to lives lived, rights hard-won, and futures still unfolding

Producer

LADD

LADD empowers people with developmental disabilities to live work and connect. We are guided by the belief that every person has ability and value. We empower adults with developmental disabilities to live, work, and connect. By 2025, we serve up to 1000 people with compassion, empathy, excellence, and efficiency, in integrated community settings through existing program expansion. And, through the successful innovation of a new technology-based service model that furthers independence and safety. We are an effective and influential voice for equal opportunity in our region and a proud community partner, working so that all people with developmental disabilities have access to great services in Ohio now and into the future. Committed to cultural inclusion as a path to empathy and equity, we are also the producers of the Over the Rhine International Film Festival in Cincinnati, the nation's only diversity film festival hosted by the disability community.

https://laddinc.org/