Disability Pride Month: Resistance in Action

July is Disability Pride Month, which began in America is 1990 after the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For campaigners in the UK, the law enshrining our rights – the Disability Discrimination Act – passed 5 years later, in 1995.  

There are currently 16 million Disabled people in the UK, with Disability Pride Month coming to the UK in 2015. The aim of the month is to move away from stigmatised understandings of disability that presents our impairments as individual burdens and instead celebrate Disabled people’s contribution to society and our resistance against ableism.  

At Disability Rights UK, we are committed to the social model of disability – an understanding that it is society that disables us, not our impairments. We are working towards a world where the barriers we face are dismantled so we do not face exclusion and marginalisation, whether that be in healthcare, education, housing or transport. 

This month, it might feel difficult for some of us to feel pride, given the current benefit cuts being pushed through Parliament and a rushed Assisted Dying Bill, legalising assisted suicide without adequate safeguards to protect Disabled people, prisoners and homeless people. However, Disability Pride Month is a time to reflect on the successes of our movement, from campaigners in the Disabled Direct Action Network (DAN) to the Piss on Pity campaign, to inspire us to continue struggling for ourselves and for Disabled people in the future. As we have faced adversity, we have always stared it down together as a movement and taken to the streets. Even when we feel most alone, we are a part of a movement that has existed for centuries and will continue to do for many years to come.

Whilst the UK continues to be a hostile place for Disabled people, one thing can be certain: our movement is growing. The Government’s recent attempts to change Personal Independence Payment criteria was dropped embarrassingly after the unrelenting efforts of Disabled campaigners to have our voices heard. Never forget, against all the structures of ableism and paternalism, we have always shouted above with demands for our autonomy and freedom. It has never been gifted or granted; we have snatched it – and there are many more victories for us to come in the future.  

One thing can be sure: for as long as society disables us, being Disabled is political and so Disability Pride Month must remain so too.