Why Disability Pride Matters: Intern Sophia Forster’s Voice

Sophia Forster is a current Political Science and English major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, excited to work with Wisconsin Progress to uplift new, diverse, and progressive voices. Prior to this fellowship, she has worked as an intern for the Chippewa Falls Heyde Arts Center and readunwritten.com. 

It’s July, which means many Americans are pulling out the red, white, and blue stripes. But there’s another flag out there associated with this month– one that you’re unlikely to see waving around in your neighbors' yards, but is, in my opinion, equally important. This one, the Disability Pride Flag, has a black background and five stripes: red, gold, white, blue, and green. 

Red represents physical disabilities, gold for neurodivergency, white for invisible or undiagnosed disabilities, blue for emotional or psychiatric disabilities, and green for sensory disabilities. The black background represents righteous fury and mourning over disabled people whose lives were cut short due to ableist violence, prejudice, eugenics, or social and interpersonal neglect. 

Although sexism, racism, and homophobia have been discussed heavily in recent years (and for good reason), ableism– which is discrimination against people with disabilities– rarely seems to make it into the conversation. There are probably many reasons for this. 

For one, ableism is fairly pervasive. Many people tend to use “blind” to mean “ignorant,” for example. Or they hate the inconvenience that disabled parking spots present to them, without acknowledging that others need them. Or they make jokes about how people they find incompetent are “allowed to have kids.” Ableism can also be subtle. A lot of stories or movies paint disabled people in a deceptively “flattering” light by showing how they can overcome the supposed misery of their disabled lives, which works to motivate non-disabled characters to find the good in the world. This is called “inspiration porn”,  and it is problematic because it objectifies disabled people for a non-disabled audience, and because the reason it’s inspiring is that disability is apparently supposed to be tragic. Additionally, high-achieving people with disabilities can be told that it doesn’t seem like they have a disability at all. Although this might be intended as a compliment, it comes from believing that people with disabilities can’t be high-achieving.

Additionally, disability isn’t brought up much in history classes. I remember learning about Helen Keller in school. (Specifically, that she was one of the first deaf and blind people to receive an education, and nothing about her books, activism, or socialist politics.) I didn’t learn that in 1927, the Supreme Court ruled in Buck v. Bell that disabled people could be forcefully sterilized by the state. I didn’t learn about human rights abuses in mental institutions, or how runaway enslaved people, women who refused to conform to gender roles, or LGBTQ+ people, were labelled as mentally ill and put in these institutions to keep them out of the public. I didn’t learn anything about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or how much effort disabled activists put into getting it passed.

This reflects a doubled reality of disability. Disabled people are uncomfortably “visible” as a prop in culture wars, while being forced to make deeper self-discoveries in silence. Disability pride offers a way of thinking that respects the disability and the person with it. 

And while things have gotten better, there’s a lot that still needs to change. For one, there are many lingering traces of past ableism in current American law and public life. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public buildings to be accessible, many are not– one survey found that 60.4% of respondents had serious difficulty, or were unable to, enter most public buildings. Special education is underfunded, and has faced record discrimination suits in recent years. People who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a monthly Social Security payment for low-income disabled people, can face ”marriage penalties” that can make them lose these life-saving benefits. If two people on the program marry, they face a 25% reduction in benefits, and if a person on SSI marries someone working full-time, they automatically lose benefits. 

American culture also does not seem to be shifting in favor of disabled people. 

When Trump mocked a disabled reporter in 2016, I couldn’t help but see the response as Americans either feigning shock, or exposing a dangerous naïveté towards an old form of prejudice. Now, it’s become too common to call an opponent the “r” slur, or “triggered.” This devaluation of disabled people is reflected in policymaking, too. When some people refused to stop the spread of COVID-19 because it wouldn’t impact “most people,” this was dismissive of the disabled people it did endanger. As part of the Republicans’ budget bill, they have made healthcare significantly less accessible, which will hurt disabled people throughout the country. Additionally, R.F.K. Jr. has insisted he will find a “cure” for autism by September, even though most autistic people don’t consider it a disease, and say they wouldn’t want a cure.

For these reasons, and many more, having a time of year to recognize disability– without shame or dehumanization attached– is so important. For disabled people, it can be a way of accepting themselves, and for non-disabled people, it can be a chance to educate themselves. Both are essential to making the world more equal.