Disability Pride Month: The Stories We’ve Told, and The Stories We’ve Yet to Hear
While people with disabilities have existed, laughed, loved and lost since the beginning of our evolution, mainstream celebrations of disability pride are fairly new. It was only in 1990, with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act protecting disabled people from discrimination, when July became Disability Pride Month.
The ADA also established regulations for the accessibility of physical infrastructure, an issue made all the more poignant when, four months before the law was passed, dozens of people with physical disabilities descended on the U.S. Capitol, abandoned their wheelchairs, canes and other mobility aides, and dragged themselves up its steps in an act of civil disobedience now known as the ‘Capitol Crawl.’
For centuries, disabled people have been shut away, exploited, mocked and silenced, but the communications industry enables their voices to be heard. Because the field is most influenced by what its professionals see and experience, uplifting and making visible the stories of people with disabilities is paramount in the ongoing effort to improve representation — and thereby public perception.
With new assistive innovations like text-to-speech technology, internet adaptations like image descriptions and video captioning, and the sight of sign language interpreters at events growing more common by the day — thank you Matrix Awards! — people with disabilities are now, more than ever, able to communicate their thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams.
For too long, people with disabilities have been tokenized by media and entertainment, only included as the butt of the joke, the cautionary tale, or the desexualized side character. As disabled actors, artists and storytellers gain access to roles, red carpets and writers’ rooms, their experiences are shared with new audiences every day.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 Americans live with some kind of disability. Often referred to as the only minority group everyone will become a member of at some point, disabled people are also some of the most ignored.
While the ADA and other laws protecting the disability community have made some strides, disabled people still face discrimination in interactions with medical professionals, employers, law enforcement, and educational institutions.
Ableist expressions like ‘are you blind?’ ‘he’s so lame,’ and ‘that’s crazy,’ continue this trend in a more subtle way, making even common language offensive yet acceptable.
How disabled people are allowed to communicate, and how they are communicated about has a direct effect on how those in power understand people’s differences and their own implicit biases.
NYWICI has highlighted several disabled voices, from 2022 Matrix Awardee Marlee Matlin, a deaf actress and author, to Mindy Henderson, the Editor-in-Chief of Quest Media, and many others.
By showcasing these women’s achievements, NYWICI advances solidarity with and visibility of disabled people and their stories and exemplifies what it is to celebrate Disability Pride.
As those of you in the communications industry work to shine a light on what is hidden, use this month to educate yourself on the experiences of people with disabilities, and how you, in our own small way, can make this world a more accessible place.
