Undergraduate student researcher Kimberli Harrison and CPD Director Bryce Fifield set out to find stories of pioneers with disabilities.
This year, undergraduate researcher Kimberli Harrison took on a less-studied topic of the Mormon migration: disabilities among the Mormon pioneers. She worked with mentor and CPD Director Bryce Fifield to find out more about pioneers with disabilities.
There’s not a lot of published research out there on the topic, Fifield said in an interview broadcast on Utah Public Radio’s Access Utah. “We’ve been just having a very interesting trek of our own.”
Fifield and Harrison dug accounts from old journal entries. The stories do more than illustrate the experiences of individuals who crossed the plains with a disability; they also highlight fellow pioneers’ attitudes. You can hear some of the stories by listening to the podcast of the the July 23 program.