Where to celebrate!
- Disability Pride Lehigh Valley- July 22 Location: Penn State Lehigh Valley Campus, 2809 Saucon Valley Rd, Center Valley, PA 18034 Food Trucks, Live Music, Performances, Fun, Community, Art Show, Resources
- Disability Pride Pittsburgh- August 26 Parade kicks off at 11 am in front of the stage!! Bring your noisemakers, banners, and your beautiful self’s as we march around Schenley Plaza!
Podcasts & Spotify Playlist
- Disability After Dark "This is a podcast that looks at disability stories. it's like sitting down with a really close friend to have real conversations about disability, sexuality and everything else about the disability experience that we don't talk about; the things about being disabled we keep in the dark. The show is hosted by Disability Awareness Consultant Andrew Gurza."
- Disarming Disability "Nicole Kelly and Sarah Tuberty powerfully deconstruct disability through candid conversations with experts exploring topics related to disability. They look to educate, empower, voice, and build a more inclusive society."
- Myelin & Melanin "Daana Townsend (she/her) a Professor and content creator; and Carlos Kareem Windam (they/them), a comedan, facilitator and musician -- each living with Multiple Sclerosis -- are your hosts this season and explore the intersections of race, culture, politics, disability and all the things"
- Disability Visibility "This is life from a disabled lens. Disability Visibility is a podcast hosted by San Francisco night owl Alice Wong featuring conversations on politics, culture, and media with disabled people. If you're interested in disability rights, social justice, and intersectionality, this show is for you. It's time to hear more disabled voices in radio. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project®, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast/"
- How Do You Cope? …with Elis and John "Elis James and John Robins talk to a range of guests about the challenges and hurdles they've faced in their own lives, whilst asking the question... How Do You Cope?"
- The Accessible Stall "The Accessible Stall is a disability podcast hosted by Kyle Khachadurian and Emily Ladau that keeps it real about issues within the disability community. Because we each have different disabilities and mobility levels, we approach everything we talk about with two unique viewpoints, offering our listeners a fresh insight into how differences in disability can color your experiences and perspectives. And we never shy away from offering our honest opinion. Even if they go against the grain of the disability community at large, we always speak our minds."
The Body Keeps the Score by
"A pioneering researcher and one of the world's foremost experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for healing Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children. Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain's wiring'specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy'and a way to reclaim lives."
Capitalism & disability by
This book comprises a collection of groundbreaking writings by Marta Russell on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism.
Care Work by
"Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha is a poet and essayist whose most recent book, the memoir Dirty River, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Publishing Triangle's Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. She is also a long-time member of the disability justice movement, which advocates for the rights of the disabled. In her latest book of essays, Leah writes passionately and personally about disability justice, on subject such as the creation of care webs, collective access, and radically accessible spaces. She also imparts her own survivor skills and wisdom based on her years of activist work, empowering the disabled--in particular, those in queer and/or BIPOC communities--and granting them the necessary tools by which they can imagine a future where no one is left behind. Presently, disability justice and emotional/care work are buzzwords on many people's lips, and the disabled and sick are discovering new ways to build power within themselves and each other; at the same time, those powers remain at risk in this fragile political climate in which we find ourselves. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms. "-- Provided by publisher.In this collection of essays, Lambda Literary Award-winning writer and longtime activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores the politics and realities of disability justice, a movement that centers the lives and leadership of sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people, with knowledge and gifts for all. Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of color are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a tool kit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms."
Cursed by
"A debut novel for fans of The Fault in Our Stars that thoughtfully and humorously depicts teen Ricky Bloom's struggles with a recent chronic illness diagnosis. Ricky's sharp, flowing, uninhibited voice makes this a page-turner. -Kirkus Reviews As if her parents' divorce and sister's departure for college weren't bad enough, fourteen-year-old Ricky Bloom has just been diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness. Her days consist of cursing everyone out, skipping school--which has become a nightmare--daydreaming about her crush, Julio, and trying to keep her parents from realizing just how bad things are. But she can't keep her ruse up forever. Ricky's afraid, angry, alone, and one suspension away from repeating ninth grade when she realizes: she can't be held back. She'll do whatever it takes to move forward--even if it means changing the person she's become. Lured out of her funk by a quirky classmate, Oliver, who's been there too, Ricky's porcupine exterior begins to shed some spines. Maybe asking for help isn't the worst thing in the world. Maybe accepting circumstances doesn't mean giving up."
Disability Visibility by
"A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience: Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright Neil Marcus, "an art ... an ingenious way to live." According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Unspeakable Conversations," which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith's celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love"--Publisher's description.
Call Number: HV1552.3 .D57 2020
Extraordinary Bodies by
Extraordinary Bodies is a cornerstone text of disability studies, establishing the field upon its publication in 1997. Framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, the book added depth to oppressive narratives and revealed novel, liberatory ones. Through her incisive readings of such texts as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson exposed the social forces driving representations of disability. She encouraged new ways of looking at texts and their depiction of the body and stretched the li.
Nothing about Us Without Us by
ames Charlton has produced a ringing indictment of disability oppression, which, he says, is rooted in degradation, dependency, and powerlessness and is experienced in some form by five hundred million persons throughout the world who have physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. Nothing About Us Without Us is the first book in the literature on disability to provide a theoretical overview of disability oppression that shows its similarities to, and differences from, racism, sexism, and colonialism. Charlton's analysis is illuminated by interviews he conducted over a ten-y.
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by
"With heartfelt candor and her usual side-splitting bite, humorist, essayist, and blogger at bitchesgottaeat.com Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the disaster that has been her life. An ill-fated pilgrimage and romantic vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes, awkward sexual encounters, a Bachelorette application gone awry, and more-- sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is a dumpster fire."
Call Number: PN2287.I73 A3 2017
What is Disability Pride Month?
Though it shares part of its name with LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, Disability Pride Month focuses on celebrating and honoring the achievements, experiences, history, and struggles of the disability community.
Disability Pride Month is celebrated in July to acknowledge the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA) in July 1990.
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March 12, 1990:
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1,000 people marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol to demand that Congress pass the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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During this, 60 activists demonstrated the inaccessibility of public spaces by getting out of their wheelchairs or setting aside their mobility aids and crawling up the Capitol steps.
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Eventually, 104 activists were arrested for unlawful demonstration.
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- July 26, 1990:
- President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law.*
*Jeff Markowitz/ap Photo
Disability Pride Flag History
In 2019, Ann Magil created the Disability Pride Flag, which is separate from the Disability Flag that was created in 2017 by Eros Recio.
The colors of the Disability Flag (2017) are meant to represent the three medals at the Paralympic Games and the overcoming of obstacles of the event.
The Disability Pride Flag (2019) has five different colors representing an aspect of disability or impairment. The background color and its lightning bolt shape also have different representations.
- The Black Background: Represents people who have died due to not only their illness, but also negligence, intolerance, and suicide.
- The Lightning Bolt: Represents the lives that many disabled people repeatedly have to adapt themselves or their physical routes to function in an inaccessible society.
- Blue: Represents mental illness.
- Yellow: Represents cognitive and intellectual disabilities.
- Green: Represents sensory perception disabilities.
- Red: Represents physical disabilities.*
(New) Disability Pride Flag
After two years of the Disability Pride Flag, members of the Disability Community raised concerns that the flag, specifically the brightened colors and zigzag designs, worsened symptoms for individuals with visually triggered disabilities, including seizure and migraine disorders.
In 2021, Magill remade the flag featuring a stripe across and muted colors.
Similar to the Flag of 2019, each color and symbol on the Disability Pride Flag represents different aspects of the disability community and experience.
- Black Background: Represents victims of ableist violence and abuse.
- Diagonal Band: Represents "A cut" through barriers that separate the disability community and society.
- Red Stripe: Physical disabilities.
- Gold Stripe: Neurodivergence.
- White Stripe: Invisible and undiagnosed disabilities.
- Blue Stripe: Psychiatric disabilities.
- Green Stripe: Sensory disabilities.*