An exploration of the history and flag of the Disability Pride movement
On Monday, I talked about my experiences with LGBTQ Pride in Cincinnati and my dreams for what Disability Pride could look like. But I strongly believe in order to know where you’re going, you have to understand where you’ve come from. The past shapes the present and guides the future, after all. So today I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about the history of Disability Pride and the meaning behind our flag.
Since the dawn of humanity, people with a variety of disabilities have existed. Tools, treatments and other support systems to aid or empower these individuals, however, have not. For much of history, the disabled were viewed as broken, dumb, inferior and wastes of space and resources. As a result, many were cast out by society, permanently institutionalized in asylums, or suffered other grim fates. Very few were able to live meaningful lives due to lack of adequate resources, societal views and norms, and other barriers impeding people with disabilities.
But these discriminatory practices provided the groundwork for what would become the Disability Rights and Disability Justice movements. Disabled people were able to find each other more easily in asylums and through otherwise being outcast. Their common experiences united them, allowing them to build communities of belonging and acceptance. It was through these communities that people with disabilities found the courage to advocate for themselves and their needs, inspiring hope and paving the way for future generations. In their article “Disability Pride Month: Acknowledging Our History, Value, Rights, and Justice” the Center for People with Disabilties (CPWD) says, “People with disabilities built networks of support, advocated for their rights, and laid the foundation for what would eventually grow into the disability justice movement. Emerging in 2005 as an evolution of the Disability Rights Movement, disability justice adopts a more comprehensive approach to securing rights and equity—particularly by recognizing the compounded marginalization experienced by people with disabilities who also belong to other underserved communities, such as people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and those experiencing poverty”. The birth of the Disability Justice movement would not have been possible without the Disability Rights Movement predating it. And the reason we have the Disability Rights Movement today is because of the bravery and solidarity of the early disabled activists who came before us.
The Disability Rights Movement as we know it didn’t truly begin to take root until the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, disability activists fought to end discrimination and pushed for policies that recognized education, employment and accessibility of public spaces as a right. A successful example of the rising momentum for disability rights was the San Francisco 504 Sit-In of 1977. CPWD explains, “The federal government delayed implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, one of the first laws to prohibit disability-based discrimination. In response, activists with disabilities occupied federal buildings across the country. The San Francisco sit-in lasted 28 days, the longest nonviolent occupation of a federal building in U.S. history. It succeeded because of cross-disability solidarity and support from allies like the Black Panther Party, that brought meals daily. It was a powerful example of marginalized communities organizing with vision and unity”. This early victory for the Disability Rights Movement proved to disability activists that change was possible, and set the stage for further national reform.
A major breakthrough occurred on July 26, 1990 when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. This groundbreaking legislation expanded disabled civil rights and prohibits discrimination against people with various disabilities, including autism, blindness, deafness, major depressive disorder, mobility disabilties such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair, walker, or cane, and many others. In their article “Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act”, the ADA.gov website explains, “The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability just as other civil rights laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, purchase goods and services, and participate in state and local government programs”. The ADA fulfills and protects these promises with its 5 “titles” or sections of the bill, which cover employment, state and local government services, public transit, businesses open to the public, telecommunications, and other important requirements, such as forbidding retaliation against a disabled person for asserting their ADA rights. Because of this law, people with disabilities around the country are able to gain employment, recieve needed care, travel to and exist in public spaces, and access public transportation and other services that were once unattainable.
On October 6, 1990, the first Disability Pride Day was held in Boston, MA. A newspaper clipping from Gay Community News reports that more than 400 people “marched, drove, wheeled and moved” from City Hall to Boston Common on that day, a 0.4 mile walk that largely spanned Tremont Street. The platform statement by the Disability Pride Day Coalition, according to the article, was that disability is “far from tragic, disability is a natural part of the human experience”. Wikipedia’s article “Disability Pride Month” noted that the key speaker of this event was Karen Thompson, the author of Why Can’t Sharon Kowalski Come Home? The parade was held again in 1991, but after the death of lead organizer Diana Viets and co-organizer Catherine Odette moving to Madison, WI, it has not been held again in Boston since. However, Boston now holds an annual “ADA Day Celebration” annually in July.
Boston’s Disability Pride Day parade also inspired disability activists in other cities to plan and organize similar local events. And on July 18, 2004, the first official Disability Pride Parade was held in Chicago. The parade was funded by prize money Sarah Triano received from earning the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), an amount Wikipedia claims was $10,000. The AAPD estimates that approximately 1500 people attended the first parade in 2004. Chicago continues to host the Disability Pride Parade yearly, with this year’s parade planned for July 25th.
The ADA was expanded with the ADA Amendments Act signed into law on September 25, 2008. This act broadened the scope of what is defined as a disability, allowing more people to be protected by anti-discrimination laws. The ADA Archive explains, “Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) in response to several Supreme Court decisions that had narrowly interpreted the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) definition of disability. This narrow interpretation resulted in the denial of the law’s protection for many individuals with impairments such as cancer, diabetes, and epilepsy who had been the subject of adverse actions due to their disabilities. The law made a number of significant changes to the ADA definition of “disability” to ensure that it would be easier for individuals seeking the protection of the ADA to establish that they have a disability that falls within the meaning of the statute”. Because of the ADAAA, all of the 44.1 million noninstitutionalized Americans living with disabilities in 2022 were protected and guaranteed rights.
In 2015, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio declared July Disability Pride Month in honor of the ADA being signed into law in July 1990. According to Wikipedia, “That same year, the Mayor's Office for People With Disabilities (MOPD) was planning a 25th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act celebration and decided to join forces with Disability Pride NYC (DPNYC) to realize the first annual Disability Pride Parade on July 12, 2015”. Thus, New York City became the first city to officially observe Disability Pride Month and continues to do so, with this year’s parade planned for October 18th.
Disabled writer Ann Magill created the Disability Pride flag in 2019. Each of the different colored stripes represents a category of disability. Red represents physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. Gold symbolizes neurodiversity, embodying conditions such as ADHD, autism and dyslexia. White serves as invisible disabilities and ones currently without a diagnosis. Blue symbolizes emotional and psychiatric disabilties, including depression, anxiety and mental illness. And finally, green represents sensory disabilties like deafness, blindness, lack of smell or taste, and audio processing disorder. The zigzags are symbolic for the barriers disabled people have to navigate around. And the black background represents mourning and rage for the victims of ableist violence and abuse.
However, according to Columbia University’s Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center, there was a problem. The bright colors of the flag caused adverse reactions in people disabilities with visual triggers when looking at it through a phone or other electronic device. With this information plus suggestions from the disability community, Magill released a new pride flag in 2021. This new flag’s muted colors prevent triggering sensory disability symptoms, and reordering the stripes accommodates those with red-green color blindness, making it more visually accessible. It also represents the collaborative spirit of the disabled community and how they came together to solve a problem. The Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center says the new diagonal lines represent cutting across the walls and barriers separating people with disabilties from abled society, as well as light and creativity slashing through the darkness.
Today, Disability Pride celebrations occur in multiple U.S. cities and even, according to AAPD, internationally in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Though ableism continues to exist in our world, the legacy of former disability activists and the spirit of Disability Pride lives on as well. Thanks to modern technology and digital tools, it’s now easier than ever for people with disabilities to find each other and share their stories, growing the community and spreading awareness. For these reasons, more and more people are seeking and receiving diagnoses and care, and are more comfortable talking openly about their conditions. By continuing to observe and promote Disability Pride and push for disability rights, we can not only honor previous generations of activists, but create a brighter future for those yet to come.
(This is Part 1 of a 2 part series. Part 2 will be released at an undetermined future date.)
Sources:
https://www.cpwd.org/blog/disability-pride-month-acknowledging-our-history-value-rights-and-justice
https://www.aapd.com/history-of-disability-pride-month/
https://www.ada.gov/topics/intro-to-ada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_Pride_Month
https://www.boston.gov/calendar/ada-day-2026
https://archive.ada.gov/nprm_adaaa/adaaa-nprm-qa.htm
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2024/disabilities-act.html
https://www.nycdisabilitypride.org
https://www.weinberg.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/history-disability-pride-flag
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