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July is Disability Pride Month. During the month of July, we celebrate Disability Pride Month, which is an opportunity to celebrate the history, challenges, and uniqueness of disabled people. Why do we celebrate Disability Pride Month in July? Disability Pride Month is celebrated in July because in July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was made a law, and it makes sense to celebrate Disability Pride Month in July. Disability pride is important because we live in a world surrounded by inaccessibility and ableism, and it can be hard to accept the reality that life is always going to be hard, but it’s not just for disabled people; non-disabled people should also be celebrating Disability Pride Month.
Non-disabled people are not exempt from disability pride because anyone can become disabled, and how you act toward disabled people makes a huge difference in how I feel about my disabled body. Non-disabled people sometimes are the reason disabled people struggle with accepting their disability because disabled people are constantly being told that we need to be fixed, but is the lack of cures the real problem? There are a lot of ways to show that you have disability pride, and you don’t need to be disabled to have disability pride. In this post, I am going to talk about what disability pride means to me as a disabled person.
When you accept my differences instead of trying to fix them– People sometimes think that disabled pride is only for disabled people, but it’s not just for disabled people, and non-disabled people sometimes have a harder time accepting our differences than disabled people. There is nothing wrong with wanting a cure, but you can’t honestly say you have disability pride if you treat me differently and think I would be better off if I were fixed. Disabled people don’t need to be fixed because the lack of cures isn’t the real issue, and ableism is. Disabled people do not need to be fixed, and that is something that non-disabled people think we need because it would make them more comfortable. You can’t have disability pride if you can’t accept differences and think that I need to be fixed.
When you accept my assistive devices- My assistive devices are freedom, and without them, I would not have the independence I do today without them. Unfortunately not everyone sees my assistive devices as a positive, and some people think that I should get rid of them. If you want to have disability pride, you not only have to accept me as an individual but also my assistive devices because I need my wheelchair and crutches to move. My assistive devices are not something I need pity over, and you should be celebrating them instead of telling disabled people it’s weakness and to get rid of them because my assistive devices give me so much independence. Acceptance of my assistive devices is so important to me because they give me so much confidence, and when you deny them, it takes away a huge part of me. Disabled people sometimes are hesitant to get assistive devices because non-disabled people make them feel bad about using them, but there is nothing wrong with needing to use assistive devices, and it’s just a different way to move. Disability pride is about accepting me as an individual and my assistive devices because you don’t truly have disability pride if you don’t encourage me to do whatever it takes to have as much independence as possible.
When you are accessible without being forced to- As a disabled person I do not expect every business to know how to accommodate all disabilities but some people don’t even try. If I have to threaten to sue your business to get some level of accessibility, it tells me the struggles of disabled people do not matter to you. If you want to have disability pride, you have to care about accessibility because, without accessibility, disabled people can’t function, and it can be quite dangerous when you aren’t accessible. Disability pride isn’t just about accepting disabled people as they are, but it’s also about recognizing that disabled people need more space to do things. If I have to force you to be accessible by throwing the law in your face, it tells me you don’t have disability pride. When you are accessible because you want to be, it tells me the struggles of disabled people matter to you, and I will always give my business to anyone who tries to be accessible, even if they don’t nail it on the first try.
It does not mean you have to love everything about your disability– People sometimes think that disability pride means that you have to love your disability all of the time. Disability pride is about learning to accept your differences, but it does not mean you can’t be frustrated with your disability, and that you have to embrace every challenge. Some things you are just stuck with because it’s part of being disabled and you don’t embrace them. I struggle with chronic constipation because I was born with bowels that don’t work but I don’t embrace these problems and I just have to deal with these issues. You can have disability pride and want some of your challenges to go away because some challenges you are just forced to live with, and I don’t know a single disabled person who loves every single thing about their disability.
It is important to celebrate Disability Pride Month because a vast majority of disabilities cannot be cured, and the only way disabled people will learn to accept their disabled bodies is if non-disabled people accept our differences and stop trying to fix them. Disabled voices matter because non-disabled people do not understand the challenges of a disability to the extent a disabled person does, and not all disabled people face the same kind of challenges. There are a lot of ways you can have disability pride, and I couldn’t possibly list them all, but it all starts with accepting disabled people for who they are.
It’s one thing to tell a disabled person that life would be easier with a cure, which is true, but it’s something totally different when you tell us we need one. Disability pride is important because anyone can become disabled, and the problem is that society makes everyone fear becoming disabled. We shouldn’t be fearing disability, and we should be fearing inaccessibility and ableism because these things are what create barriers that no one wants to have to deal with. What does disability pride mean to you? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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