It is Disability Pride Month!
The Disability Pride Month flag on the left corner. At the bottom of the image is a blue banner with the blog title “It is Disability Pride Month!”
July is Disability Pride Month which as a deaf and disabled person, it is a pretty important month to me. While most disability related days, weeks, and months are based on awareness of living with a disability and its challenges, Disability Pride Month to me has a different tone compared to other awareness campaigns, being proud of living with your disabilities. The month started once the American Disabilities Act (ADA) came into law and it is now celebrated worldwide annually.
Disability Pride Month is important as it is a shift from the common perception (typically from non-disabled people) that living with a disability is a negative experience, something to be sad and pitied about. The month highlights reasons to be proud even if there can be some challenges due to the systems that are in place. It is awareness that tends to focus on the positive side and encourages people to rethink what a disability experience can mean and feel like.
While the month is an opportunity to view disability as a sense of pride, the challenges of living with disabilities are not dismissed. Even with the Disability Pride Month Flag, there is recognition of the challenges. The meaning of the flag that was redesigned in 2021 to be more disability friendly are below from the artist Ann Magill
Having All Six "Standard" Flag Colo(u)rs: signifying that (the) Disability Community is pan-national, spanning borders between states and nations.
The Black Field: Mourning and rage for victims of ableist violence and abuse
The Diagonal Band: "Cutting across" the walls and barriers that separate the disabled from normate society, also light and creativity cutting through the darkness
The White Stripe: Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities
The Red Stripe: Physical Disabilities
The Gold Stripe: Neurodivergence
The Blue Stripe: Psychiatric Disabilities
The Green Stripe: Sensory Disabilities
So, what does the month mean to me?
For me, it allows me to reconnect to my younger self. I remember being young, especially before getting my first cochlear implant, just not seeing the issue of not being able to hear. To my younger self, it was just something I am and my accommodations were just something I did because I wanted to participate and that was my opportunity to do so. Having a cochlear implant is what opened my eyes to expectations from people around me. As years went on, I gained another disability of the lovely chronic pain and the experiences of ableism and audism that weighted down my pride for living with disabilities. Trying to live up to people’s expectations of hearing with a cochlear implant while at the same time still not having my needs met or my challenging experiences noticed was strange. As I took a step back and stopped trying to meet people’s expectations, my perception changed. It had its ups and downs as my chronic pain was at its worst but eventually, once I realized that meeting myself where I am at and meeting my disabilities’ conflicting needs, that pride reignited.
Now, having the experiences of being deaf my entire life and gaining a disability along with the good and bad, I can live with my head held high of how it shaped me and where it is taking me. I hope that if you have a disability that there is something to be proud of. If you are not there yet, that is okay. It is hard to unlearn, heck, even I am still unlearning the expectations that were pushed onto me. Society still views disability as a negative experience and still creates systems and makes decisions that fuel stories of horrible experiences and standards that disabled people are living in. It takes all of us to change the system. Part of it is looking at disability in a positive light even with its challenges.
Amanda