10 Ways to Be More Inclusive and Learn About Diversity Within Disability
For Disability Pride Month, The Trevor Project is proud to partner with Easterseals, one of the nations leading providers of life-changing disability and community services for over 100 years. Easterseals actively lobbied for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which expanded protections to people with disabilities to prohibit discrimination in everyday activities like employment, transportation, education, and recreation.Disability Pride Month started in 1990 following this landmark legislation and continues to celebrate the milestones toward equity within the disability community its also a month that challenges the outdated and harmful idea that people with disabilities do not belong in society.Disability Pride Month is not about loving your specific disability and its symptoms all the time. Disability Pride is about accepting that you are not less than because of your disability. Celebrating Pride is about sharing stories and perspectives within the community, which helps to create a space where we can exist without shame.How can we all celebrate Disability Pride Month? A great starting point is self-education, even if youre disabled. Consider these ten ways to be more inclusive and learn about diversity within disability.1. Seek out authentic disabled voices in media, whether its reading Eddie Ndopus Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw, or watching disabled content creators on YouTube, like Squirmy and Grubs or Roll with Cole and Charisma.2. Remember that when you meet one person with a disability, youve met one person with a disability. Identity is not a monolith!3. Recognize that disabled people lead full lives and can be in romantic relationships, pursue higher education, or live interdependently. Having high support needs does not disqualify you from any of the above. The Easterseals podcast Everything You Know About Disability is Wrong highlights the everyday lives of disabled people.4. Understand intersectional identities exist within disability, like being BIPOC or queer, which can impact individual needs and experiences. Understanding intersectionality can lead to more inclusive spaces.5. Know that disability is different for everyone. Not every wheelchair user is unable to walk. Someone with a mental illness may not have an apparent disability. Two people who both have Cerebral Palsy may have very different presentations of their disability. 6. How someone relates to their disability is also different for everyone. Some folks may use person with a disability to describe themselves, while others might prefer disabled person. And some people dont have a preference! To be an ally requires respect and curiosity about how someone wants to refer to themselves.7. Believe that disabled people are experts in their own experiences and needs. Listen to disabled people when they share new information and avoid offering uninvited suggestions for managing someone elses disability.8. Be open to a persons disability and how their accessibility needs can change over time. Disability is not static, and making space for someones needs at any time can be a powerful way to demonstrate inclusion and respect.9. Know that much of what has been presented in the media and on screen about disability is not correct. Take interest in understanding disabled people in your everyday life rather than focusing on stereotypes in the media.10. Ask your friends about their disability and their disability pride! Create a space where disability can be talked about without judgment or shame. Let your disabled friends know you care to understand their identity.The Trevor Projects Guide to Supporting LGBTQ+ Young People with Disabilities is an additional resource that offers ways to further that self education and foster inclusion. Remember that education is not a destination, but a practice we can continue to build on indefinitely.Happy Disability Pride Month!If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Projects trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat atTheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.The post 10 Ways to Be More Inclusive and Learn About Diversity Within Disability appeared first on The Trevor Project.
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