July is disability pride month. When I learned this, I was left wondering, what is disability pride. I know that people have been made to feel bad about their disabilities for most of history; this is clearly wrong, but isn’t disability “pride” taking it a step too far? I am disabled, and here’s my take July as Disability Pride Month and disability pride in general.
Why Is July Disability Pride Month?
Disability Pride Month occurs in July to celebrate the passing of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990. This is the law that says you cannot discriminate against someone because of a disability. This means that people with a disability are protected from discrimination in areas of housing, employment and elsewhere.
Disability Pride Day isn’t an official day, but there are some parades that celebrate disability pride.
What Are the Goals Point of Disability Pride Month?
There are numerous goals when it comes to July and Disability Pride Month. For example, according to the American Foundation for the Blind,
For Disability Pride month, I want to urge us all to listen to and amplify voices of people with disabilities. The disability community is hurting from a lack of representation, especially when compared to the representation of more typical people. This representation extends from our day-to-day lives, to employment, to government, to positions of leadership, and even media of all sorts. This month affords us all a great opportunity to lift up the disability community and shine a spotlight on people who are often marginalized, forgotten, or explicitly discriminated against. All voices should be equally given a chance to speak!
Isn’t that Just Disability Awareness?
It seems to me that what people talk about when they talk about disability pride is really disability awareness. They have swapped one word for another. It seems to me that in this month, people want to talk openly about disabilities and the people who have them. People want to talk about representation. People want to talk about discrimination based on disability. People want to educate others about disabilities.
As a person with a disability, it’s should come as no surprise that I have no problem with that.
What Is Disability Pride?
The issue I have is calling it “disability pride.” I’m not going to tell someone else how to feel, and if you feel proud of blindness, paraplegia, bipolar disorder, or another disability, that’s your business, but I can tell you that I do not feel proud of my disabilities in the least. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not ashamed of my disabilities. I don’t hide my disabilities. But I also feel not one iota of pride about them. And that’s because I didn’t do anything to get these “abilities” (or lack thereof). I am saddled with these disabilities because of genes and back luck. That is nothing to be proud of. That’s like being proud of your eye color. Your eye color is neutral, as is having a disability. It is neither bad nor good. But I guess a Disability Neutrality Month wouldn’t be very popular.
Personally, I feel like this is another case of political correctness bending words to its will. I believe there is nothing wrong with standing up and declaring you have a disability. There are actually some great parts of doing that. But that is not the same thing as pride.
I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer about disability pride, but I really think we need more realness and not the false positivity that “pride” offers. Honestly, if disabilities were something to be proud of and admired, then we wouldn’t need the ADA at all, now would we?
The Connection Between Pride and My Disabilities
For me, I’m proud of myself. And I’m proud of myself in spite of my disabilities, not because of them. I’m proud of my accomplishments that have been hindered by disability but not entirely thwarted. I’m proud of how far I’ve been able to swim in spite of the spikey, iron weights wrapped around my ankles. That is what I am proud of.
Disability Awareness Month in July or Disability Education Month in July makes sense to me. Pride in something that tries to kill me on a daily basis and has nothing really to do with me as a person, does not.
Banner image by Sergio Goncalves Chicago, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Image by Ann Magill, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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