She received her PhD in Education (Social Foundations) from the University of North Carolina in 1996. Her postdoctoral project at UC-Santa Barbara was her first in disability history, but continued her interest in nineteenth-century American family lives; it culminated in the recent chapter "Thomas Cameron's 'Pure and Guileless Life', 1806-1870: Affection and Developmental Disability in a North Carolina Family," in Burch and Rembis, eds., Disability Histories (University of Illinois Press 2014). Richards served five years as president of the Disability History Association and continues as editor of the DHA newsletter, and as co-editor of H-Disability. She also blogs, edits wikipedia entries, and makes wheelchair-activated costumes.