Cuts to the NGO Sector Are Erasing Disability History

The government's decision threatens not only the future of many individuals and groups, but also the preservation of their history.

The important peer-support activities, volunteer work, development work, and advocacy efforts for which many organizations have been responsible will come to an end.

A great deal of expertise will be lost, and thousands of people will be left without support. When civil society organizations can no longer amplify the voices of individuals, democracy itself is weakened.

During a workshop on disability history for the archival sector at the end of September, participants discussed the consequences that these cuts may have for the preservation of disability history.

We, the actors involved in the Disability History Month network, are deeply concerned that the history of many significant disability organizations will disappear as a result of the cuts to their operations.

Disability organizations hold valuable materials related, for example, to disability rights advocacy. Transferring these materials to archives and museums requires staff time and resources.

These materials tell not only the story of disability history, but also the history of our welfare state and civil society. When an organization is forced to wind down its operations on a very tight schedule, its history may, in the worst case, end up in a landfill.

Is this the government's goal: to erase part of the nation's collective memory?

Salla Fagerström, Chair, Finnish Association of the Deaf

Kari Huuskonen, Museum Curator, Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired

Lena Karhu, Head of Archives, Swedish Central Archives

Rita Paqvalén, Non-fiction Writer

Taru Perälä, Cultural Secretary, Threshold Association (Kynnys)

Anna Piispanen, Researcher, Labour Archives

Sanni Purhonen, Activist / Author

Outi Salonlahti, Senior Specialist, Culture for All Service

Sari Salovaara, Expert in Cultural Disability Rights Issues

Petri Tanskanen, Head of Archives, Labour Archives

The authors are members of the Disability History Month network.

This is a Letter to the Editor published in Åbo Underrättelser in Swedish on October 19th 2026: Nedskärningarna på föreningsfältet raderar ut funkishistorien (directs to another website)