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
Never Fade Away: Untold Stories of Developmental Disability
Never Fade Away Series Trailer
Introducing a new podcast of oral histories and interviews centering people with developmental disabilities in the American Midwest. Produced by Cincinnati-based service organization LADD as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, this podcast preserves the real stories of real people who share insights on life in institutional settings, progress after the ADA, growing up with a disability, finding independence and dreams for the future.
Hey, hey, I've got a story for you, right here today, and some history too. Never fade away, listen to what I say, story's here to stay. Never fade
Host:away, never fade away. Hey, hey. This is Never Fade Away, an oral history project centering untold stories by and about people with developmental disabilities in Ohio. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the storytellers and not necessarily endorsed or representative of the producers. I am your neuro-spicy host, Kate Siaha-Unrigg, and this podcast is brought to you by LADD, a Cincinnati-based organization grounded in the belief that all people have and value. LADD empowers adults with developmental disabilities to live, work, and connect. Here are some of their stories. Never fade away, listen what I say, stories here to stay. Never fade away.
TIm:I can tell you this, it was hard living all by myself. At first.
Host:You mean like because of loneliness or because of being able to do stuff?
TIm:I think both of them. I mean, I think, and now you've been living alone for 20 years. Yeah, this is the 20th year.
Phyllis:I think that there's a sheer ignorance around people with disabilities because if you don't learn it when you're in school, then you don't know and you don't understand it.
Lynn:I had a hard time learning in school and then the girls and boys made fun of me because I couldn't do math very well. They said I was mentally... which I hate that word. Oh,
Host:it's terrible, yeah. Yeah. And, um... What was Orient like? You're somebody who knows from the inside. Can you tell me, like, describe to me what it was like?
Lynn:Orient's awful. They don't call you by your name.
Host:What do they call you?
Lynn:They don't call you anything. They call you a number. You get on the scrubbed floor with a toothbrush.
Edwina:We just made a plan and a bunch of us then took off. Took off where? To the houses across the street when you get very far. Did you knock on any doors or were you just still running? Just running. Just trying to get away from the place. It was really hard being in a place like that. I can't describe it. It's too hard. I ask God, what if I put up with it?
Host:What did God say?
Lynn:I don't know. I never got an answer. I can't.
Phyllis:It drives me crazy when people say, oh, you're such an angel. No, I'm not an angel. You know, yeah, and I do love what I do. They are viable individuals, human beings who have jobs, who contribute to, they pay taxes, they go out and they work, they take transportation, they relax, they entertain with their friends and their family, so I think that people don't know.
TIm:I love being in the office and I love interacting with my coworkers and the friendships that I made every day. It'll be eight years in January. So incredible. I plan on working here until I retire.
Theme:Memories, they come back. How we were, the when and why. Living with the disability the story of us the story of me never fade away never fade away
