Disability Awareness Month

• Read:  The Center for Disability Rights defines ableism as “a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities and often rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other. Ableism is intertwined in our culture, due to many limiting beliefs about what disability does or does not mean, how able-bodied people learn to treat people with disabilities and how we are often not included at the table for key decisions” (Center for Disability Rights). Ableism can be personal (beliefs, attitudes, and individual actions), and it can be systemic (laws, policies, and institutional practices).   

Learn more about ableist language—and alternative terms and phrases—from Lydia X. Z. Brown, Director of Public Policy at the National Disability Institute. Brown emphasizes that while ableism is not simply a list of bad words, language is one tool of an oppressive system, and “being aware of language—for those of us who have the privilege of being able to change our language—can help us understand how pervasive ableism is.”  

• Watch: "Disability History: An Introduction”. Learn more about the rich history and culture of the disability community in this brief video with disability rights activist Lawrence Carter-Long. Access the transcript here.

• Listen: Disability Visibility author and podcast host Alice Wong explains that, “as a wheelchair user, I’m aware that many people think of disability as people who may have a service animal or may use a wheelchair, a cane, or a hearing aid. Whenever I get the chance, I try to share with folks that this is just a small fraction of a much larger disability community.” Listen to her interview with Tiffany Peterson and Linda Williams, who share their lived experiences as women with invisible disabilities on “Episode 17: Invisible Disabilities.”