There have been many great strides made in recent times surrounding disability awareness and equality, but there is still a lot more that needs to be done. One of the best ways that important messages surrounding disability are communicated is disability events, which can educate people on key issues and bring these issues to the forefront of discussion.
Disability Pride Month
There are many terrific disability events that can promote visibility and educate people on important topics surrounding disability. One of the leading events is Disability Pride, which is actually a month-long series of events that started in 1990 with a goal of creating positive pride for people with all disabilities as well as break down some of the stigmas surrounding disability.
Raising Awareness & Creating Pride
One of the main goals of Disability Pride Month is to open conversations about disability by encouraging people to share their stories, such as Kate Stanford’s inspirational story of her journey to find confidence in her “new” disabled body. It is also achieved through celebrating diversity and raising awareness about the obstacles and challenges that those in the disabled community face in their lives. Stanford commented on Disability Pride Month:
“Disability Pride means different things to different people, which is one of the reasons why I think it hasn’t gained as much traction as a lot of us hoped, but for me, it’s all about my journey of finding confidence in my ‘new’ disabled body.”
Disability Awareness Month
In addition to Disability Pride Month, there is also Disability Awareness Month that runs from the 18th of November to the 18th of December this year. The main themes of the month this year are Disability and Hidden Impairment and Disability Sex and Relationships. This is important as many people only see those with visible impairments as disabled, but this is not the case. Currently, the Equality Act 2010 defines disability as “if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative affect on your ability to do normal daily activities”.
Getting Support
This means that there are many different types of disabilities and people can struggle with normal daily activities in a number of different ways that people should be aware of. If you need additional support for your disability needs, you might find that a wheelchair accessible vehicle can give you greater freedom and independence that can make a big difference in your life.
Events such as these are incredibly important for bringing issues surrounding disability to the forefront as well as creating positive pride for those with all disabilities. There is still a lot of progress that needs to be made in terms of disability awareness despite the improvements over the years and events like this will be critical moving forward to highlight issues and raise important conversations and topics that need to be addressed.
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