July is Disability Pride Month – a month for Disabled people to share our lived experiences and also raise awareness of the obstacles our community faces. Disability Pride Month was born in 1990 as a day of celebration when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That year, Boston held the very first Disability Pride Day, and the first official celebration of Disability Pride Month was held in July 2015, marking the 25th anniversary of the ADA. This has gradually spread, and now many countries across the world celebrate Disability Pride Month by holding parades and other festivities. We even have our own flag, which was designed by Ann Magill – it has a grey background and then different stripes in different colours to recognise different types of Disability and the solidarity between us.
But you’ll be forgiven for not knowing much about Disability Pride Month. I only found out about it a few years ago, and sadly it’s still very underrepresented. Very few brands and companies do anything to mark it, and the only real reason I found out about it was because I follow other Disabled creators on social media. There’s so much I could write about Disability Pride Month, but today I wanted to explore what feeling pride in my Disability means to me in the hope it might help others in a similar situation.
Ever since I found out about Disability Pride Month, I’ve been keen to join in with the awareness raising. I’ve posted on social media for the last few years about it, contacted numerous companies to ask them what they’re doing to mark it (and make their company more accessible) and spoken about it in general conversation with friends and family. But one thing that’s always troubled me is that I’ve never really been able to fully identify with feeling proud to be Disabled, and that felt like a pretty big issue!
I’m Disabled through chronic illness, and the illnesses that I have can be extremely debilitating. They leave me feeling, often, incredibly unwell, mean I spend a lot of time in hospital having invasive tests and treatments, have resulted in me missing out on huge parts of my life and stop me being able to do a lot of the ‘normal’ things that my peers are able to do. So, I think it’s understandable that I don’t feel particularly proud about being Disabled. I often feel angry, upset, frustrated – I spend so much time grieving the things I’ve lost – and most of the time, I find myself wishing I wasn’t Disabled. So, I’ve often felt like a bit of a hypocrite when I’ve spoken about Disability Pride and have worried that it’s yet another space that I don’t belong in.
But the more I’ve read about Disability Pride Month, and the more I’ve listened to other Disabled people talking about their experiences, the more I’ve realised that I do belong in this community and that my experiences are valid. Disability is such a complex thing, and no two Disabled people are going to have the same experiences or feelings. I think it’s so important to remember this and to make space for the stories of Disabled people from all backgrounds. I’ve gradually come to learn that it’s absolutely OK to have mixed feelings on your Disability, and that actually it’s pretty normal! I don’t think I follow one Disabled person that hasn’t, at some point, been frustrated by some element of their Disability.
So, I’ve been trying to look at my place in Disability Pride Month a bit differently this year. I’m reassuring myself that I don’t have to be overwhelmingly positive about being Disabled if that’s not how I feel now. But there are still plenty of things related to my Disability that I can feel proud about. I can feel proud about taking up space wherever I am and remind myself that, as a Disabled person, I deserve to be able to access the world just as non-Disabled people can. I can stop apologising every time I ask for my needs to be met. I can stop feeling embarrassed every time I have to ask a shop to clear furniture and cleaning equipment out of their Disabled toilet or changing room just so I can use it. I can stop saying sorry for ‘getting in the way’ in my wheelchair. I can just be unapologetically me – Disability and all.
This month is going to bring up a lot of different feelings for Disabled people and that’s OK. The whole point of this month is to amplify Disabled voices from all backgrounds so we can share our experiences, the struggles we face, our triumphs and what the world can do to make life more accessible for us. So please don’t feel like I felt, that if you’re not completely positive about being Disabled that you don’t belong in this community. Because every single Disabled person has a place in the Disabled community, and your thoughts and feelings around Disability Pride Month matter just as much as the next Disabled persons’ do. So, whether you use this month to shout about Disabled joy, talk about the struggles you face as a Disabled person or just sit quietly with your Disability and show yourself some TLC – there’s no right or wrong way to mark Disability Pride Month.
Have you heard of Disability Pride Month before? How do you like to mark it?
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