Celebrating Disability Pride Month
"Celebrating Disability Pride Month" in black text in a white box with a black border. The NCI black bubble logo with a red heart in the center is under the text. The background is the muted grey of the Disability Pride flag with muted red, yellow, white, blue and green diagonal stripes.
More than 1 in 4 U.S. adults have a disability, which comes out to more than 70 million people. Disability Pride Month is now observed every July, but it started with a Disability Pride Day in Boston back in 1990. In 2004, the first Disability Pride Parade was held in Chicago. Disability Pride Month was then officially established in 2015, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act being signed into law. Now, there are events nationwide to recognize Disability Pride Month, ranging from parades and festivals to flag-raisings and resource fairs.
Not only does the month celebrate the ADA as a turning point in the disability rights movement, but it celebrates the disability identity, community, culture and leadership. It also recognizes the barriers that individuals with disabilities still face. Over the years, this has expanded to include issues such as digital accessibility, as evidenced by the ADA Title II Compliance and updated deadlines as recent as this year.
Disability Pride is politics and activism that reflect decades of advocacy and the continued fight for a future filled with equity and inclusion. The Arc, which is the nation’s leading nonprofit advocating and supporting people with disabilities, has put it best with this year’s Disability Pride Month Theme: The World Works Better With Us. It has been disability-led advocacy that has driven the change so many individuals now utilize whether they have disabilities or not, such as NCI’s mission of closed captioning and media access.
Celebrate Disability Pride Month by checking out The Arc’s How-To blog, which covers more of the history and culture behind the festivities, a list of events near you, and how you can advocate for disability rights. You can also explore our services to discover a solution that will make your next event accessible for all! From live human captioning to ASR, translation, audio description and more, NCI is proud to support individuals who rely on our services to participate fully in the world of auditory and visual communications not only this pride month, but year-round.