Celebrating Disability Pride Month

JULY marks Disability Pride Month which is a chance for people with disabilities to show that they’re ‘proud to be disabled’.

Disability Pride Month began in America in 1990 when over 1,000 people marched from the White House to the US Capitol to demand that Congress pass the Disabilities Act.

Upon arrival, about 60 activists physically demonstrated the inaccessibility of public spaces by getting out of their wheelchairs or setting aside their mobility aids and crawling up the Capitol steps in an act of protest that later became known as the ‘Capitol Crawl’.

The current Disability Pride Flag was created in 2011 by Ann Magill. The faded black background represents ‘the anger and mourning over the eugenics and the neglect that disabled people have to fight against’.

Red represents physical disabilities; gold is for neurodiversity; white represents invisible disabilities; blue stands for emotional and psychiatric disabilities and green is for sensory disabilities.

The UH spoke with local disability and access rights campaigner, Dermot Devlin who told us what Disability Pride Month means to him.

He said, “Disability Pride Month is to show the world we are proud to be disabled. Not to be pitied, not to be looked down on and not to be awed at. No more should we hear phrases like ‘I’d rather be dead than be disabled’, which I do hear a lot unbelievably.

“There are many disabled people who feel the need to hide or don’t feel pride. I cannot and will not force them to change their views, as that is personal and private to them.

“However, by flying my flag, I’m showing them it’s ok to be disabled. It is a time to highlight the inequalities around the world and more locally that disabled people have to face daily, and to fight for change.”