Disability Pride Month

Disability Pride Month July 2022

This month is Disability Pride Month! The first Disability Pride started in Boston, MA in 1990, but it has since become an international celebration. The aim of Disability Pride is described by the founders of Disability Pride NYC to “promote inclusion, awareness, and visibility of people with disabilities, and redefine public perception of disability”.

Learn more about Disability Pride Month and how you can celebrate by reading Georgia’s blog below:

Celebrating Disability Pride Month 2022

Disability Pride Month is an international annual celebration held every July to promote disability awareness to “accept and honor each person's uniqueness” (AmeriDisability 2019). This is an integral event to challenge stigmas and systemic ableism - the discrimination of disabled people (Scope n.d.).  

Disability Pride started as a day of celebration in 1990 the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed. Over time the celebration has progressed to a whole month with the first Disability Pride Month being celebrated in 2015 to mark 25 years of the ADA (Inclusive Employers, 2022).

The Disability Pride Flag

Source: (QI Creative 2020)

Image description: A “Straight Diagonal” version of the Disability Pride Flag: A charcoal grey flag with a diagonal and from the top left to bottom right corner, made up of five parallel stripes in red, gold, pale grey, blue, and green.

The Disability Pride flag was developed by Ann Magill in 2019 and was refreshed in 2021 to improve accessibility (Inclusive Employers 2022).  

What does the flag represent?

The charcoal background represents those that have been subjected to ableist violence and mourning for those who we have lost, as well as representing the ongoing protests the disabled community face. The parallel colours represent the barriers disabled people face within an ableist society and the creativity that stems from this, to navigate life and break free from authority. These colours represent the various experiences in the disabled community such as: mental illness, development disability, physical disabilities, sensory disabilities and invisible disabilities (Inclusive Employers 2022). 

For the purpose of this blog, I would like to highlight invisible disabilities. This is because invisible disabilities are particularly important to highlight when considering those that we work with both students and colleagues and how this may have an impact on disclosure.

The psychological impact of disclosing a disability or access need is hard and often undermined. The fear of rejection, will they believe us? Accept us? These feelings get amplified and weigh very heavily, resulting in internalised ableism. Internalised ableism ‘would not exist without external oppression that forms the social climate in which we exist’ (Marks 1999, cited by Campbell 2009, p. 25). 

Source: (Palacios 2017)

Image description: An animation of someone in a wheelchair. A pale green background with white and orange thought bubbles reading “I will never get a job” “I’m not good enough” “I’m broken and need to be fixed’” and “I’m asking for too much”. The image heading is brown with ‘Internalized Ableism” written in white.

Yet, until we ourselves facilitate change and enhance these safe spaces by promoting positive disclosure, invisible disabilities will stay invisible.

The lack of a supportive environment to enable positive disclosure is the reason why those with hidden disabilities choose not to disclose. Would you want to put yourself in the vulnerable position of disclosing your personal needs without knowing what support is available or for nothing to get done about it? Therefore, we need to make students and colleagues more aware of the advantages of disclosing by informing them about reasonable adjustments in the university.

By promoting positive disclosure and shifting our attitudes we can open so many doors for not just disabled students and our disabled colleagues. Disclosure isn’t a bad thing, and neither is disability! But it is our responsibility to provide this environment to enable positive disclosure and dismantle systemic ableism. It can’t be done overnight but as a collective we are stronger together! 

Happy Disability Pride Month, I can’t wait for the day to come when we can truly celebrate the pure joy it is to be a part of this disabled community rather than having to dismantle the systemic ableism the disabled community faces every day.   

Thank you for reading,

Georgia Vine- Clinical Demonstrator in Occupational Therapy & Award-Winning Disability Blogger
g.a.vine@hud.ac.uk
Twitter- @GeorgiaVineOT

 References

AmeriDisability. (2019). What is Disability Pride... And How to Display It. [Online.] Retrieved from https://www.ameridisability.com/how-to-display-disability-pride/

Campbell, K. F. (2009). Contours of Ableism. Palgrave Macmillan: London. [Online.] Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245181_2

Inclusive Employers. (2022). What is Disability Pride Month? [Online.] Retrieved from https://www.inclusiveemployers.co.uk/awareness-day/disability-pride-month/

Palacios, M. R. (2017). Internalized Ableism. The Other Side of Ableism. [Online.] Retrieved from https://cripstory.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/the-other-side-of-ableism/

QI Creative. (2020).  Disability Pride Month. [Online.] Retrieved from https://www.qicreative.com/news/disability-pride-month

Scope. (n.d.). Disablism and Ableism. [Online.] Retrieved from https://www.scope.org.uk/about-us/disablism/

 

Reasonable Adjustments

Georgia raises an important message around support and reasonable adjustments.

As a university, we endeavour to be accessible, inclusive and to remove barriers for all. It is important that we deliver a positive experience, if you require any reasonable adjustments or have any accessibility needs, please speak to your line manager and we will consider any reasonable adjustments in conjunction with the recommendations made by Occupational Health.

Role Models

One of the aims of Disability Pride Month is to promote visibility of people with disabilities. We can do this by celebrating our staff and students and learning from their experiences. Please take the time to read Georgia’s Role Model Profile below:

Image description: A close-up image of Georgia, a white female, her brunette hair is straight just below shoulders she has glasses on and is wearing a white top with nude coloured button. Behind her is some silver metallic blinds.

Georgia Vine

She/her/hers

What is your role at The University of Huddersfield?

Clinical Demonstrator in Occupational Therapy

What is your experience of being disabled at the University (or in your life more generally)?

As someone who’s been disabled all my life, I’ve never known anything different. A lot of planning goes into place for me to be able to achieve my full potential when working at the University and for every other element of my life which takes up a lot of energy. Yet, I am not trying to overcome my disability as it defines me with its challenges and its positive influences. Without my disability I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I’ve had that have led me here today.

Why is Disability Pride Month important to you?

Disability Pride Month is hugely important to me as it’s a chance to celebrate the disabled community and the utter joy it is to be a part of it.  Although a lot of work is still needed to be done to dismantle systemic ableism it is a chance to celebrate how far we have come by remembering those that came before us and the ableist violence they endured to get us here.

Why do you think it’s important to have disabled role models?

It's important to have disabled role models to show society what disability truly means. Achievements aren’t made ‘in spite of disability’ they are made from pure determination and hard work of those with disabilities to navigate an ableist society. Disabled role models are great for others to learn from but it’s important to recognise that disabled people are not your inspiration. Disability is not a bad thing and living with a disability doesn’t make you an inspiration and saying otherwise can be patronising and harmful to the disabled community.

How do you think being part of the disabled community relates to other parts of your identity?

Being in the disabled community allows me to feel more confident as a young disabled woman. The disabled community allows me to see my disability as a strength and not a weakness by giving me a sense of belonging. My disability relates to every part of my life as without it I wouldn’t be the occupational therapist, activist and writer I am today. 

What can allies do to better support disabled people in the workplace?

To support us you must educate yourselves it is the easy option to ask people with disabilities about our experiences of inequality and injustice, but this is unfair and burdens us cognitively and emotionally. To be an ally you must confront your ableism and ableist views, though this may be unintentional these must be reflected on and addressed.

What do you want staff and students at the University to know or understand about disability and the disabled community?

I want them to know that disability is not a bad word or anything to be ashamed of! It's society and attitudes that disabled us not our impairments. This disabled community is a beautiful community to be a part of and if you not only listen to us but hear and understand us a lot of learning can be done.

Thank you to Georgia for her honest and insightful blog and for being a role model!

If you would like to help us increase visibility across campus by creating a Role Model Profile, please contact Lauren Minto.