Book Displays: July ~ Disability Pride Month

Disability Pride Month occurs in July each year since 1990. The Americans with Disability Act (ADA), the landmark legislation that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, was passed on July 26, 1990.

About the Disability Pride Month Flag:
The flag has a black background and diagonally across the flag are five zigzag lines colored blue, yellow, white, red, and green. The lines are considered to be a lightning bolt and each color represents something unique about the disability community. The flag was created to encompass all disabilities and was designed by Ann Magill member of the disability community. The black background represents the suffering of the disability community from violence and also serves as a color of rebellion and protest. The lightning bolt represents how individuals with disabilities must navigate barriers, and demonstrates their creativity in doing so. The five colors represent the variety of needs and experiences: Mental Illness, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities, Physical Disabilities, and Sensory Disabilities.

Disability pride means you take pride in your whole self, which includes your disability. It means you understand your limitations, including chronic pain or illness, but accept and love who you are. Learn more about: self advocacy, person-first or identity-first language, living with disability, making life accessible.

July has been an important month in the history of disability rights ever since President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in 1990. This landmark law prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities, and in July of that same year, the first Disability Pride Day was celebrated in Boston. Since then, July has been marked as Disability Pride Month with parades and celebrations throughout the nation to mark the anniversary of the monumental law. In honor of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared July Disability Pride Month in 2015. Disability Pride Month is an important time to honor the diversity and uniqueness of each person in the disability community and celebrate people who have disabilities.

Disability Pride Month celebrates disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of who they are, reclaiming visibility in public and interacting fully with their disabilities out in the open, and rejecting shame and internalized ableism. It is a time for the disability community to come together, uplift, and amplify one another’s voices and be heard. Disability pride has been described as “accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”