There’s been some talk on Disability Pride vs. Disability Awareness.
Disability Awareness Month is in March. That month is about educating others, and providing resources and opportunities for disabled people to live fulfilling lives.
July is Disability Pride Month which celebrates the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This month naturally raises awareness but it’s also so much more than that.
Disability Pride Month is about taking pride in all the work disabled individuals, past and present, have done for basic rights and equality just by simply living their disabled lives.
It’s about remembering the countless disability activists that got us to where we are today.
For my disabled baddies,
It’s about taking pride in how you show up every day in an ableist society.
It’s about taking pride in how you navigate inaccessibility.
It’s about letting people know that we exist and showing them our full identities.
It’s about redefining disability in a world not made with disability in mind.
It’s about being proud of our strong community and celebrating us!
For everyone,
It’s about embracing disability as the truly human experience it is and seeing disabled people as human.
So Disability Awareness and Disability Pride are different but the same. Disability Awareness is more geared toward educating on disability whereas Disability Pride is about celebrating disability and disabled people!
We see Pride as Awareness now because there’s still lots of work that needs to happen to ensure disabled people are treated as equal humans.
As disability and disabled people become more normalized, we may see a shift in how these two months are celebrated. For now, celebrate disability and disabled people!! Do what you can to change the narrative and get disabled people in the room!
One way to celebrate is to follow us on our Instagram @SHOPLLOFFICIAL !! Support Disabled Owned Businesses!
Our Head Quad In Charge, Ashley (me writing this), also posts some Disability education and just snippets of living life as a disabled human over on her insta @ASHLEYLLORENS16
Happy Disability Pride Month!!
Tell a disabled person they’re awesome today!