By Cathy Reay: For Complete Post, Click Here…
“This term ‘disability’ coupled with ‘pride’, is sometimes seen as oxymoronic by able-bodied people and that alone makes me even prouder to call myself disabled and proud.”
If there’s one thing you do this Disability Pride Month, please make it listening to disabled people. You may have spotted awareness-raising posts from disabled content creators on social media, many of which serve as a call to arms to creators’ mostly non-disabled audiences, asking them to publicly support and show appreciation for the disabled community in July and also beyond.
Even with the effort some of us put into telling the world about it, year on year Disability Pride Month tends to pass by largely unnoticed by those outside our community. There are a few parades that take place annually in the U.S., but Brighton is the only city in the UK to have held a parade, the last of which — thanks to the pandemic — was three years ago.
It is perhaps of little surprise, given the mistreatment of and lack of funding for disabled people under their rule, that lawmakers in both the U.S. and UK continually fail to acknowledge the celebration.
Another kick in the teeth is that, even in a month that is supposed to be about us, I haven’t seen any big brands include disabled people in their advertising campaigns. Based on my own experience and that of some of my peers, the amount of work I’m assigned in July is rarely more than any other month.
