July is Disability Pride Month!
After years of fighting, on July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, and Disability rights activists declared the day to be Disability Pride Day. It wasn't until 25 years later that the community's day of joy received any legal recognition when activists in New York City successfully convinced the mayor's office to recognize July as Disability Pride Month in 2015. Since then, other cities have followed suit and July has become a time of celebration and pride. Disabled people are the largest marginalized group in the United States by population share and continue to fight every day for access to public spaces, affordable housing, and equal treatment in society. This July, let us celebrate the past, present, and future of Disability activism and community.
Here is a selection of books for you to read this month. Find more on our living Disability Pride book list:
Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World by Ben Mattlin
This is an eye-opening portrait of the diverse disability community as it is today and how attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Leah Lakshmi is one of the foremost disability activists of our era. This essay collection asks some provocative questions: What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled — and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation?
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann
One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn't built for all of us and of one woman's activism — from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington — Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann's lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong
This collection of personal essays from 2020 was in many ways the first of its kind. Disabled writers and activists touch on topics ranging from the experiences of being Deaf in prison to misonceptions about seeing-eye dogs, to a Queer Disability Fashion Manifesto, to the intersections of Ableism and Anti-Black Racism, to how Disabled activists are at the forefront of climate resilience — and even more. All thirty-eight essays are personal, poignant, striking, and give voice to a community that has been silenced for centuries despite making up one-fifth of the country.
More resources
- Our blog posts on Autism Acceptance Month, Autism Reads for Young Readers, and Deaf History Month
- Our Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanias department.
- Disability Pride PA, who host the annual Disability Pride March.
- Disabled in Action, the lead disability rights organization in Philadelphia.
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