Indiana residents join the world in celebrating Disability Pride Month
For Americans, July is a month for fireworks.
Worldwide, July is also a month for a different celebration — the celebration of Disability Pride Month.
After the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990, preventing discrimination based on disability, the commemorative holiday turned into a monthlong celebration for disability pride.
In 2004, Chicago’s Disability Pride Parade organization hosted the first ever Disability Pride Parade, an event that has become an annual tradition.
Disability Pride Parade
This year, at 11 a.m. on July 20, Chicago will have its 21st annual parade to the theme of “Disability pride will not be denied.”
W.A. Thomasson, an 88-year-old now legally blind non-binary person, has been involved with the parade since its inception in 2004.
“(Having the parade) means that the Chicago disability community is working together very well,” Thomasson said. “There are other groups that are more advocacy oriented, and that is very good, but just to be able to celebrate our pride and who we are is a great thing.”
When asked what message they hope to convey through this year’s parade, Thomasson quoted the organization’s mission statement:
“Your disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity in which people living with disability can take pride.’”
Thomasson noted that while there are many celebrations of the month that include advocacy, the Chicago parade is one that dedicates an entire event.
“So many people who become disabled early in life are subjected to bullying and they tend to get down on the idea of being disabled,” Thomasson said.
Combating shame with pride is important, Thomasson continued.
Indiana celebrates
While Indiana does not have a parade for the holiday (yet), self-advocates from and affiliated with the Arc of Indiana, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said they are celebrating and encouraging others to do the same.
Melody “Mels” Cooper, a self-advocate on staff at the Arc, said spreading pride through her advocacy is one of her primary goals.
“They don’t know what they can do,” Cooper said. “I didn’t know what I could do. Nobody told me I could come here and have this amazing job.”
Like Cooper, Shawn Fulton, who has an intellectual disability, wasn’t shown the work possibilities for disabled people.
Fulton recalled how he spent 27 years in a sheltered workshop, a word used to describe organizations that employ people with disabilities separately and pay them below minimum wage, averaging rates of $3.34 an hour.
Sheltered workshops are run through exploitation of an exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1983 and often trap disabled people in low paying jobs.
After leaving the sheltered workshop, which Fulton called a “modern-day sweat shop,” Fulton landed a job at the Arc of Indiana.
Now, outside Fulton is the advocacy engagement and education manager at the Arc —all while being a homeowner and owner of a DJ business.
With his self-advocacy, Fulton shares his story to inspire other disabled people.
“That’s the best part of my job, telling them my story and hopefully inspiring them to become a better self-advocate,” Fulton said.
Noah Upchurch, who is autistic and the president of Self-Advocates of Indiana, an organization focused on advocating for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, echoed these sentiments, tying them into Disability Pride Month.
“Disability pride month is super important because you can showcase all the amazing people with disabilities that are doing great work,” he said. “Representation matters. We need to see that people with disabilities may need some supports, but they can have the life that they want.”
Celebrating representation
Like Upchurch stated, representation is a central part of the worldwide month.
Oftentimes, representation of disabled people in shows has drawn critics due to caricature-like portrayals.
This Disability Pride Month, many advocates worldwide are choosing to highlight more accurate representation.
One portrayal lauded as an accurate portrayal is the role of Quinni, an autistic character from Netflix’s Heartbreak High.
Quinni is played by Australian actress Chloe Hayden, who is autistic and has ADHD.
Hayden said she aims to make disabled people feel seen through her acting and offscreen through her online presence.
“I showcase the joy in disability; I stim freely in all of my videos, I wear headphones on red carpets, I ramble about my special interests,” Hayden said in an email to the Recorder. “I know I’m in a position where I have people looking to me, and it’s really important to me to showcase how my disabilities present themselves in ways that are completely authentic.”
Hayden said for her, disability pride looks like “outwardly celebrating and loving myself, not in spite of my disabilities, but with them.”
Disability Pride Month continues to celebrate disabled people each July. For more information on the Chicago Disability Pride Parade, visit disabilityprideparade.org.
To read more about the Arc’s celebration of Disability Pride Month, read an article written by the Self-Advocates at arcind.org/news/disability-pride-month.
“Your mind is magic,” Hayden said. “Don’t let anyone dull that sparkle.”
Contact Indianapolis Recorder intern, Kayla Barlow, at kaylab@indyrecorder.com
