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Disability Pride

July is recognised as Disability Pride Month Worldwide, it was first observed in July 1990, to mark the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — a landmark law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities. Globally, it serves as a time of reflection, celebration, education, and visibility. It’s a movement that encourages people with disability to take pride in who they are, embrace their identity, and challenge the stigma that too often surrounds disability.

(source: https://www.cpwd.org/blog/disability-pride-month-acknowledging-our-history-value-rights-and-justice).

The Disability Pride Flag is a charcoal grey flag bisected diagonally from the top left corner to the lower right corner by five parallel stripes in red, pale gold, pale grey, light blue, and green. The diagonal bands are intended to signify “cutting across barriers that disabled people face”.

Disability Pride Flag

Meaning of the colours

  • Charcoal Grey: Mourning for people who have died due to ableist violence, abuse, suicide, and illness
  • Red Stripe: Physical disabilities
  • Gold Stripe: Neurodiversity
  • Blue Stripe: Emotional and psychiatric disabilities
  • Green Stripe: Sensory disabilities
  • White Stripe: Undiagnosed and invisible disabilities
  • (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_flag).

My relationship with the concept of Disability Pride has not been linear. Like many others, joining the Disability Community wasn’t something I had thought was going to happen to me. Over the years, I had to battle my own ablest beliefs and I questioned if I was “disabled enough” to belong.

In my early twenties, due to chronic illness and invisible disability I became disabled.  During this time, I encountered discrimination in accessing education and work. I found the Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS); I joined the youth led advisory committee chaired at the time by Dr George Taleporos. The group was made of young disabled advocates from across the state, including the late great Stella Young. During my time being involved with YDAS I had the privilege to learn, grow and understand my identity and what it meant to belong to the Disabled Community. Stella taught me and the world, that we weren’t there to be used as “inspiration porn”, the idea that disabled people can do certain things “in spite” of their disability and are used to motivate non-disabled people, rather than uplifting disabled people.

Over the years, my own internalised ableism has reared its head at times, challenging my own views on what it means to be disabled. It was during one of these times, that I first heard of the social model of Disability, it gave me a framework to understand Disability and my identity in the context that views disability as a result of societal barriers rather than individual impairments, emphasizing the need for societal change to promote inclusion and accessibility.

Whilst I might have doubted if I belonged, this community has always been welcoming, supportive and offered a sense of connection that I’ve not felt elsewhere.

The disability community is rich in culture, strength, and diversity, it has also had to contend with centuries of exclusion and marginalisation. For much of history, people with disabilities were segregated from public life, denied education, and stripped of decision-making rights. This is continuing today with the proposed NDIS reforms. Whilst as a community we have been targeted by the media and advocates have received vile and unjust criticism on their social media platforms.

Our community has come together, written submissions, advocated, shared petitions and challenged those in power to reimagine these reforms and be guided by those with lived experience. It is a community that is used to fighting for our needs and built on social justice.

It is a community I’m proud to be part of, a community which supports each other, is a diverse and radically inclusive. Reflective of society and the nature of disability itself.

I’m on a continuing journey to better understand Disability, dismantle ableist systems, and build unapologetically accessible futures for us all.

Some of my favourite Disability advocates from Australia and overseas that I continue to learn from include:

So, in honour of Disability Pride month, I encourage you to engage with content from Disabled creators, where it be reading books by disabled authors, watching tv shows or sharing posts. I encourage you to learn about our community’s rich history and the value of Disability Justice.

When we prioritise accessibility and inclusion, and amplify the voices of those with a lived/living experience of disability, we create a better future for us all.

Jess Edwards (she/her)

Has a lived/living experience of mental ill health, trauma, chronic illness and disability. She works as an LLE Consultant across the areas of Health and Disability.  She is an advocate for person-centred, holistic health and wellbeing supports and stronger recognition of people’s rights. She is passionate about authentic co-design, the value of lived expertise, and building services that reflect the needs of those who use them.

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