What does Disability Pride mean to you?
Stella Young really opened my eyes to the “social model of disability”. If you want to read about what all that means, People With Disability have a great summary here.
She was an activist, comedian and journalist.
Here is Stella speaking at TEDxSydney
We also spoke to some members of the community here and this is what they said disability pride meant to them
@WheresMySquishy said:
For me, disability pride is about increasing visibility. Often, people with disabilities are shunned or 'forgotten about' in society. We often see medical professionals as 'experts' or as being the ones with the sole authority to talk about conditions. Pride is about recognising that people with disabilities can also be experts. We are experts in our own experiences, what we like and don't like, and many of us can also have a voice.
@Lost_Space_Explorer5 said:
For me, I have to admit that at first I was confused as to why it was disability 'pride' month and not disability 'awareness' month. Why would something that can cause more struggle and stress for people be something to be proud of? Clearly, I was missing something. I did some self reflection and remembered something from when I was in primary school...We were doing an ice breaker activity and the question was tell us your name and something interesting about you. And my response for some reason was 'my brother has autism'. It was interesting to me at the time, I was proud of it cause I thought it made him cool and therefore me by association! I was happy about it- autism made my brother who he was, sure it was hard sometimes but it just made him unique.
He was super hyperactive back then so it was fun to just play tag and stuff and he would always laugh. Plus we got to do cool activities with groups for kids with disabilities and they would always let me play. But then after this ice breaker- I remember this other student came up to me and said "why would you say that?" as if it were something I should be ashamed of bringing up, like it wasn't something interesting, it was something sad. This student, I should note, also had a sibling with a disability. And this message grew stronger. I noticed the stares- both pitying and shaming whenever my family were outside and my brother did something society deemed as 'odd'.
I began to resent his autism, I wanted a 'normal' brother. I avoided telling people about him except my close friends over the years But again the part of me who rejected all these messages from society fought back. I wanted to protect my brother from people who could harm him and when my friends would say they felt sorry for me I would say I didn't want pity it was normal for me that my brother was a little but different. So I think I get the importance of pride. Because being different isn't something to be ashamed of. It isn't something we should feel we have to hide and deal with on our own.It can get ingrained in us that you have to be normal to fit in. That having something go 'wrong' with your body or mind means you should be sad and won't be able to do stuff others can do, won't be able to fit in. What BS! We're all different and some of us need extra support to access things. We deserve that support. It doesn't make people a burden to need extra support. It isn't something to be 'pitied' or ashamed about. It can be really difficult sometimes yes, but we shouldn't feel like we have to hide It is hard I think, to go against these ideas we may have internalised because of society. I think sometimes it's about just taking small steps towards being proud of who you are but also towards empowering and accepting others for who they are. You're not always going to be perfect with the language you use or how you act towards others but the point is to keep trying and learning from your mistakes
I hope to hear from you all in the comment section!
