Disability awareness is important for disabled people because disability affects us and disabled people are always advocating for more disability inclusion. Disabled people and sometimes their families are often the only people advocating for more disability inclusion because people tend to think that they don’t have to since they don’t have a disability. Disability advocacy is not only for disabled people because anyone can become disabled and we all benefit from more accessibility and inclusion. Most of my advocacy work is online because I am not able to drive and it’s the most accessible way for me to be able to educate people and make a change. There are tons of disabled people online spreading awareness, but content creation is not for everyone, and you don’t have to be a content creator to advocate for disabled people. Some people do not want to have a public life and that is okay because although that is the life I have chosen you don’t have to do the same things. You can still be an advocate without posting anything online because there are tons of other ways to spread awareness without being a public figure. How can you be an advocate for disabled people if you don’t want to be a content creator?
Share a post from a disabled person- Most disabled people who are advocating online are doing it to get support because they don’t know a lot of people who truly understand challenges or couldn’t find a real job and it was your only hope for making. I completely understand that not everyone is going to want to start a blog and talk about personal health challenges and that is okay because you don’t have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations if you don’t want to but you can share posts from others. Disabled people sometimes struggle to grow their brands online a little more than non-disabled people because people are ableist and think that they don’t have to listen to disabled people since disability doesn’t affect them. Most people have social media to connect with their friends and one of the easiest ways you can help disabled creators grow their brands is by simply sharing posts you enjoyed because sometimes people need to see articles written by disabled people to understand how our disabilities affect us. It takes two seconds to share a post and I have done all the hard for you.
Call out inaccessibility– Online advocacy is important but we can the most change when we call inaccessibility in real life. If you are out somewhere and you see someone blocking an accessible parking spot you can politely approach that person and let them know they are creating barriers for disabled people that can be dangerous. You can’t force someone to listen to you but you can do your part and educate them because sometimes non-disabled don’t realize they are creating barriers and will be thankful and you called them out on it. Don’t be rude about it because people will likely not listen to you when you have an attitude about it. Education is important because we can’t expect non-disabled people to know everything and the only way we will get more disability inclusion is by talking about it. If you are out at the store and see something that could negatively impact disabled people call people out on it because you never who is willing to listen.
Buy products from disabled business owners- Disabled people can be as good of a business owner as a non-disabled person. I mostly blog for fun and do not sell any products, but there are a lot of disabled people who are business owners. If you know a disabled person who is a business owner that sells products you would benefit from, I think you should buy from them. I love supporting disabled business owners because when you buy from disabled people, you are supporting accessibility and inclusion.
Try and inclusive language- There are a lot of terms such as wheelchair-bound and handicapped that are considered ableist which can be harmful to disabled people and is no longer acceptable in today’s world. You can’t control the language that people use on TV but you can control what comes out of your mouth and use inclusive language. I think that it is so important that we use inclusive language because when you are not using terms such as wheelchair-bound and say wheelchair user instead people sometimes are curious and ask questions. Inclusive language opens up conversations that we need to have and creates change. If you are constantly using offensive language that everyone uses nothing is going to change because people won’t see a problem with it.
Advocate for your loved ones at the doctor’s office– Disabled people sometimes struggle to get their doctors to take them seriously because doctors often assume we can’t speak for ourselves. I am able to advocate for myself at the doctor’s office because no one knows my needs better than I do and only need someone to drive me. It can be helpful to have an advocate with you at the doctor’s office because sometimes doctors are more inclined to listen to caregivers than disabled people even though it should not be that way. Advocate for your loved ones at the doctor’s office or any public place because sometimes it can be exhausting for me to have to constantly explain my needs to people. I am capable of advocating for myself but if I am with people I don’t always call things out right because I like to see what my friends and family are going to do.
Disability advocacy is important, and you can make a lot of impact online but you don’t have to be a public figure to spread awareness because there are a lot of ways you can make a difference without being a content creator. Disabled people shouldn’t be the only ones calling out inaccessibility and we need non-disabled people to do it too because people sometimes listen to non-disabled people more than disabled people even though it should be the other way around. Disability awareness isn’t only for disabled people, and we need help from non-disabled people because we need to normalize disability and end the stigma. If there is one thing, I want my non-disabled friends and family to know it’s that you are not exempt from advocacy because you aren’t disabled. How do you advocate for disabled people without having a public life? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
Subscribe And Never Miss A Post
My Rockin Disabled Life 