Anti-Racism Resources: July 2023 — Disability Pride Month
Compiled by Dawn Clark, NAAFA Board Member
Each month, we will feature educational resources on the NAAFA Community Voices Blog to support our community in taking action to combat racism. Some resources will be historic information about systemic racism. Others will be resources on doing the internal work of understanding ourselves and how we play a part in that system.
July is Disability Pride Month. In this edition of NAAFA’s anti-racism resources, we focus on ways to support our Queer and BIPOC family, friends, and neighbors.
Finding your community and coming together in joy or grief is vital to the human experience. But often these spaces leave out ALL of us, because when some are not there due to inaccessibility, ALL are diminished. Whether that is non-wheelchair-accessible spaces, nowhere to sit comfortably, or not providing interpreters for deaf or hard of hearing folx. This year marks 33 years since the Americans with Disability Act was signed into law. Still, we struggle to make all spaces accessible. For BIPOC folx, racism is compounded with ableism and inaccessibility creates extreme barriers to liberation and celebration.
When creating events to include everyBODY, here is a list compiled by Sandy Ho, Mia Mingus, and Alice Wong for creating accessible spaces, events, conferences, and more.
A few resources that I have found to further my learning about disability and anti-racism are The Disability Visibility Project and Anti-Racism Daily.
For myself, changing my social media feeds and podcasts to include more disabled voices has given me a new perspective on what “disability” means, hard truths I need to hear, and fresh ideas on how to move forward together. Here are some wonderful people to follow:
Imani Barbarin - @crutches_and_spice
Alex Locust - @glamputee
Alice Wong - @disability_visibility
