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The History Hour

The Americans with Disabilities Act and the invention of GPS

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4879 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

We find out about the landmark protest in 1990 when wheelchair users crawled up the steps of the US Capitol Building in Washington DC, campaigning for disability rights.

Our expert is Dr Maria Orchard, law lecturer at the University of Leeds, who has carried out research into disability and inclusion.

We hear about the 2015 attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunisia's capital, in which 22 tourists were killed.

Next, the Gambian woman who in 1997 began making bags and purses out of old discarded plastic and is now globally recognised as Africa's Queen of Recycling.

The South African musical King Kong which opened to critical acclaim in 1959 and whose all-black cast defied apartheid.

Finally, the invention of the Global Positioning System - GPS - in the late 1970s, which now keeps aircraft in the sky and supports banking transactions.

Contributors:

Anita Cameron - disability rights campaigner Dr Maria Orchard - lecturer in law at the University of Leeds Hamadi Ben Abdesslem - tour guide Isatou Ceesay - environmental campaigner Nelson Mandela - former President of South Africa Marian Matshikiza - daughter of Todd Matshikiza, jazz pianist and composer Professor Brad Parkinson - chief architect of GPS

(Photo: 8 year-old Jennifer Keelan crawls up the steps of the US Capitol, 12 March 1990. Credit: AP/Jeff Markowitz)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?

0:06.6

Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,

0:12.6

and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.

0:15.6

Good things come to those who don't wait.

0:18.6

Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds.

0:27.3

Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson,

0:32.9

the past brought to life by those who were there.

0:35.8

Coming up, Terror in Tunis,

0:38.4

the 2015 attack on the Bardo Museum

0:40.8

in which 22 tourists were killed.

0:43.3

I hadn't even finished my sentence

0:45.0

when the first burst of gunfire

0:46.6

entered the room we were in.

0:49.1

And then there was panic.

0:51.0

Also, a 1959 musical in South Africa

0:53.8

with an all-black cast.

0:55.7

The invention that keeps planes in the sky, but in the 1970s, nobody wanted it.

1:00.7

And Africa's Queen of Recycling.

1:03.5

They were laughing at me.

1:05.0

She is not educated.

1:05.9

That's why I say, come to the village.

1:07.6

And that was a big motivation for me.

...

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