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Licensed social worker and disability consultant Vilissa Thompson, LMSW, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare group of disorders better known as brittle bone disease. Those with brittle bone disease have a defect in the production of collagen, causing bone deformities, broken bones, bowed limbs, abnormal curvature of the spine, and other symptoms.
Thompson’s case is Type 4, which she describes as moderate. “Two people can have the same type, but OI functions differently in them,” she told POPSUGAR. “It’s about how tall a person becomes, how easy their bones can break, and how many fractures they may have over time.”
Thompson started Ramp Your Voice! in 2013 as a blog that later morphed into an organization and larger movement where she talks about the intersectionality of being a Black person with a disability in America and highlights experiences with — and the experiences of others confronted by — ableism and racism. Her rise in advocacy came to be after she started the #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag in 2016, which she created after seeing a conversation on Twitter around an article that discussed disability in beauty but only featured the stories and images of white women with disabilities.
There are many ways you can check your own ableism, which is intentional or unintentional discrimination against those with a disability and in favor of able-bodied people. Start with the below steps.
Check your language.
Disability Advocate Vilissa Thompson: How to Check Ableism
A Disability-Rights Consultant and Social Worker Explains How to Check Your Ableism Every Day
August 5, 2020by SAMANTHA BRODSKY2.2K Shares
Image Source: Courtesy of Vilissa Thompson
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Licensed social worker and disability consultant Vilissa Thompson, LMSW, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare group of disorders better known as brittle bone disease. Those with brittle bone disease have a defect in the production of collagen, causing bone deformities, broken bones, bowed limbs, abnormal curvature of the spine, and other symptoms.
Thompson’s case is Type 4, which she describes as moderate. “Two people can have the same type, but OI functions differently in them,” she told POPSUGAR. “It’s about how tall a person becomes, how easy their bones can break, and how many fractures they may have over time.”
Thompson started Ramp Your Voice! in 2013 as a blog that later morphed into an organization and larger movement where she talks about the intersectionality of being a Black person with a disability in America and highlights experiences with — and the experiences of others confronted by — ableism and racism. Her rise in advocacy came to be after she started the #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag in 2016, which she created after seeing a conversation on Twitter around an article that discussed disability in beauty but only featured the stories and images of white women with disabilities.ADVERTISEMENThttps://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.418.3_en.html#goog_866783028
The hashtag — still used today — brings to light the lack of diversity in disability storytelling, the racism that exists in the disability community itself, and, as Thompson described, outside of the community, how that racism “impacts the life experiences that disabled people of color endure, and what the effects of whitewashing, erasure, exclusion do to disabled people of color.”
Through Thompson’s advocacy and activism, she helped with Elizabeth Warren’s “Protecting the Rights and Equality of People with Disabilities” plan presented earlier this year when Warren was running for office. And Thompson said she started working with Movement For Black Lives (M4BL) this summer as an accessibility consultant for events it plans to host. She wants to get organizations like M4BL to start conversations on disability justice because “you have to talk about disability if you’re dealing with any sociopolitical issues,” she said.
In this decade, Thompson aims to continue to assist Black organizations in particular in addressing ableism. This goes, she said, for talking about disability issues and “how to really bring that disability focus and identity into their work so that when they talk about education, when they talk about health care, they have that lens and it’s not an afterthought.”
How to Check Ableism in Your Own Life
There are many ways you can check your own ableism, which is intentional or unintentional discrimination against those with a disability and in favor of able-bodied people. Start with the below steps.
Check Your Language.
Get educated.
See what your school or workplace is doing.
