Disability Pride Month - A brief history and What it means by Nanditha B Biju
WHAT IS DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH?
July is celebrated as Disability Pride Month. In 1990 after the American Disability Act was passed, in July of that year Boston celebrated the first Disability Pride Month and after that Disability Pride events have been held in many places throughout the globe. Disability Pride is an event to celebrate people with disability and other chronic illnesses. Some people may balk at the second word “Pride” but one thing to understand is that disability pride is not about appropriating LGBTQIA+ Pride but intertwining it and celebrating our visibility in public.
DOES DISABILITY PRIDE HAVE A FLAG?
Yes, there’s a disability pride flag. It was designed in 2019 by Martha McGill a disabled woman. Each of the elements represents a different part of the community.
The Black Field: this field is to represent the disabled people who have lost their lives due not only to their illness, but also to negligence, suicide, and eugenics.
The Colours: each colour on this flag represents a different aspect of disability or impairment.
Red: physical disabilities
Yellow: cognitive and intellectual disabilities
White: invisible and undiagnosed disabilities
Blue: mental illness
Green: sensory perception disabilities
The lightning bolt shape represents the non-literal lives of disabled people where many adapt themselves or their physical routes to get around an inaccessible society.
WHY DISABILITY PRIDE IS NEEDED?
Disability Pride is needed to combat the ableism that is rampant in this society. Which includes stigma against people with disabilities and barriers to access. A 2018 study published in Rehabilitation Psychology found that “Disability Pride partially mediated the relationship between stigma and self-esteem. Individuals with disabilities may benefit from the rejection-identification model (RIM), whereby the negative impacts of stigma, such as decreased self-esteem can be mitigated when they choose to connect, rather than attempt to fit in with the dominant culture. In this way, disability pride can be a vital opportunity to challenge stigma, especially when marginalization extends beyond