Written by Bailey Patterson
Every July marks Disability Pride Month, a time for people with disabilities to celebrate their identities and connect with their communities.
College and university students are becoming evolved versions of themselves while furthering their education. Students with disabilities may face barriers to connection and celebration they would like to participate in. With this in mind, here are ways college students with disabilities can celebrate Disability Pride:
Find your Disability Community
Many colleges have clubs or organizations where students with disabilities can meet each other and find friends with similar experiences. At the University of Kentucky, this organization is the Disabled and Ill Student Coalition, where students with all types of disabilities and allies can create community, learn, and advocate.
Other students may be at colleges or universities that don’t already have these types of organizations. These students may use resources such as their ADA Compliance Center, disability resource center, or local organizations in their cities or towns to meet other students with disabilities and begin meeting friends.
Get Connected Online
There are many online resources for students with disabilities to get connected. Beyond social media, many disability organizations have online servers for their communities. There is a national server for college students with disabilities called the National Disabled Student Coalition, where you can connect with students with disabilities all across America.
Get Creative
Art is a great way to express pride. Reflecting on your experiences and feelings as a person with a disability can be a starting point in the creative process. Create a poem, take a photo, make visual art, write a song, piece together a collage, perform a monologue or anything that feels authentic to your expression of disability pride.
If you want to share your creativity with the community, share your post to instagram using the hashtag #CreateDisabilityPrideHDI and you might be featured on HDI’s social media!
Advocate
Channel your Disability Pride into advocating for a cause! In this year, the 34th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, there is still so much more to be done in terms of Disability Justice Advocacy. Connect with local or online groups and contribute to ways in which they are furthering the human rights of people with disabilities both locally and worldwide. Uplift the voices of other people with disabilities when they speak about disability rights causes. Use your own voice to highlight the ways your experiences inform a need for change.
Learn
Learning disability history and theory can be an empowering way to get in touch with your disability pride. There are many websites, content creators, books, and films that contain educational content about disability history and theory.
Ask your university or local library what disability-related books are in their catalog. Search your favorite online database for articles and journals such as Disability Studies Quarterly. One way you can learn with HDI is by signing up to view a free documentary about disability rights activist, Arthur Campbell, If I Can’t Do It It Ain’t Worth Doing. For more information about the screening, click here.
Other Resources:
Disabled and Ill Student Coalition Instagram
The University of Kentucky Human Development Institute
If I Can’t Do It It Ain’t Worth Doing Documentary Screening RSVP