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
Episodes
7 episodes
David & Susan: Revolutionizing Developmental Disability Services, Rights and Visibility
Meet David and Susan, who have decades of experience between then leading LADD, one of the most innovative and revolutionary disability services organizations in the USA. How do you move from institutions and segregation to tr...
Lynne: Reclaiming Life after The Orient State Institute
Lynne survived things most people cannot imagine.In this episode of Never Fade Away, Lynne shares her firsthand memories of living with an undiagnosed developmental disability inside the infamous Orient State Institute, where re...
Phyllis: Phyllis: The Life and Calling of Direct Support Professionals
In this episode of Never Fade Away, host Kate Siahaan-Rigg speaks with Phyllis, a direct support professional and coordinator at LADD in Cincinnati who has spent more than four decades working alongside people with developmental disabi...
Edwina: Hard Truths about being sent to an "Institution"
In this episode, we meet Edwina, who shares a powerful and deeply personal account of her childhood, beginning when she was taken from her home at the age of nine or ten and placed in the Columbus State School, where she lived for twelve years....
Tim: Living and Thriving with Cerebral Palsy
In this week's episode, I am talking to Tim, an avid sports fan and a popular employee at LADD. Currently living on his own, he’s the winner of the Spirit of Independence Award. Tim shares insights into life as a person with cerebral palsy, dis...