Disability Pride Month: Acknowledging Our History, Value, Rights, and Justice.
Image: A graphic with multi-colored vertical stripes on the left and right sides, with the words "Disability Pride Month, July 2025" in the center.
Every July, Disability Pride Month invites us to celebrate a powerful truth: people with disabilities may have different abilities, and that is something to honor and celebrate.
It’s no coincidence that this celebration happens in July, the month we commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On July 26, 1990, this landmark piece of civil rights legislation changed the legal landscape for accessibility and inclusion in the U.S.
Disability Pride Month is more than a symbolic event. It’s a cultural and political movement rooted in decades of advocacy and resilience. It uplifts the voices of people with disabilities, challenges outdated perceptions, and reclaims disability as a vital, visible part of human diversity. In this article, we will explore the history of Disability Pride Month, the origins and evolution of the Independent Living Movement, the changes we have seen, and look to a future that recognizes intersectionality and justice.
What Is Disability Pride?
Image: People gather together with banners, signs, and t-shirts for the first Disability Pride Parade in New York City in July 1995.
The first official Disability Pride Month was celebrated in July 2015, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the ADA. Disability Pride affirms the right of every person to be seen, valued, and included exactly as they are. It is a rejection of narratives that treat disability as something shameful or tragic, but instead celebrate disability as a natural, meaningful part of the human experience.
Pride, in this context, is not about ignoring the barriers that still exist. It’s about facing them head-on, without apology and without internalizing the idea that people with disabilities must change to belong. We with disabilities don’t need to be cured. We don’t need to be pitied. We need to be respected, included, and heard.
A Long History of Exclusion, And the Power of Community
While the disability community is rich in culture, strength, and diversity, it has also had to contend with centuries of exclusion and marginalization. For much of history, people with disabilities were segregated from public life, denied education, and stripped of decision-making rights. Support systems were limited or nonexistent, and the default societal response to disability was institutionalization.
Yet even under those circumstances, 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 modern Disability Rights Movement gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing inspiration from the broader Civil Rights Movement. Grassroots activists demanded an end to discrimination and fought for policies that recognized access to public places, education, employment, and more, not as an exception or special treatment, but as a right.
One of the defining moments in disability rights history was the San Francisco 504 Sit-In of 1977, when 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. Read this previous article to learn more about this historic event.
The ADA: A Turning Point
Image: George Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990.
The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in July 1990 marked a critical milestone in the ongoing fight for equality. The ADA made it illegal to discriminate based on disability in employment, education, transportation, and public spaces. It also mandated widespread changes to increase accessibility in architecture, as well as shifts in policy and public attitudes.
But while the ADA changed laws, it did not eliminate ableism. Legal protections are only one piece of the puzzle. Barriers, both physical and attitudinal, remain. Disability Pride Month reminds the public that true inclusion goes beyond compliance. It requires culture change, systemic accountability, and participation by people with disabilities at every level of decision-making.
People with disabilities make up a powerful and growing demographic in the U.S.:
61 million adults in the U.S.— 1 in 4 Americans—identify as having a disability.
People with disabilities are underemployed and underrepresented. Only 22.5% of working-age adults with disabilities are employed, compared to 65% of their non-disabled peers.
Economic barriers persist: people with disabilities are twice as likely to live below the poverty line.
LGBTQ+ adults, people of color, and immigrants with disabilities face even higher rates of exclusion and systemic inequity due to overlapping oppressions.
These figures are not just statistics, but highlight the need for legal, social, and economic systems that address the needs of all people in society. Disability Pride is about stepping out and showing up, without internalized discrimination, to represent and bring awareness; and it’s about calling for better systems of inclusion and equity in all areas of life.
Moving Forward Together: From Disability Pride to Disability Justice
Disability Pride Month is an opportunity not only to celebrate identity and visibility but also to recognize the collective strength of the disability community. It invites society to reimagine a world designed with access, inclusion, and equity at its core; a world where education, employment, healthcare, transportation, and digital spaces are built to serve all people..
Central to this vision is an understanding of intersectionality, which is how race, gender identity, sexual orientation, economic status, and other identities intersect with disability. The disability community is vast and diverse, represented by individuals across all demographics. Effective policies, leadership, and representation must reflect that diversity. A one-size-fits-all approach to disability rights has never been effective, and the push for inclusive, representative frameworks continues to grow. (For more on this, see our recent article exploring the intersection of disability and LGBTQ+ identities during Pride Month.)
Image: Patty Berne, Disability Justice organizer and co-founder of Sins Invalid.
The call for deeper inclusion has evolved into the Disability Justice Movement. This framework was first articulated by Patty Berne, a DisabilityJustice organizer, performance artist, and co-founder of Sins Invalid, disability arts collective that centers the leadership of people of color and queer and trans individuals who have lived experience with disability. Berne’s work challenges traditional models of disability advocacy, urging the field to move beyond access and accommodation to address broader systems of oppression, including racism, ableism, economic injustice, and gender-based discrimination.
Another leading figure in the Disability Justice Movement is Mia Mingus, a queer, Korean-American writer, educator, and transformative justice practitioner. Mingus is known for her development of the concept of access intimacy, which she describes as the deeply felt experience of being seen and respected in one’s access needs, not as a checklist of accommodations, but as part of a mutual, justice-centered relationship. Her work reframes access as a shared responsibility rooted in love, care, and collective accountability.
Together, Berne, Mingus, and many others have shaped a vision of disability advocacy that centers on interdependence, liberation, and cross-movement solidarity. Their contributions offer a more inclusive path forward—one that broadens the conversation around disability pride to include the lived experiences of those most often excluded.
Connecting Disability Justice to the Independent Living Movement
Any discussion of disability justice and pride must also recognize the foundational role of the Independent Living (IL) Movement, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a powerful force for self-determination and greater community acceptance. While disability justice expands the lens of inclusion, it builds on the hard-won gains of the IL Movement, especially the radical idea that people with disabilities are best-suited to manage and make choices for their own lives.
The IL Movement rejected institutionalization and the charity model in favor of autonomy, dignity, and choice. At its core was a transformative belief: people with disabilities should have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities as everyone else, including the right to live in their communities with the supports they choose.
This philosophy led to the creation of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) across the U.S., run by and for people with disabilities. CILs provide peer support, advocacy, skills training, and transition assistance—services that reflect the belief that accessibility is not about fixing individuals, but about removing societal barriers.
As a proud Center for Independent Living (CIL), CPWD works every day to carry this philosophy forward. We operate on the belief that people with disabilities know best what they need and deserve the tools and freedom to define and pursue their own goals.
In 2020, CPWD launched its IDEA Committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity into Action) to actively address the intersecting issues highlighted by the disability justice movement. The IDEA Committee works to ensure CPWD's programs, leadership, and community advocacy reflect the diverse identities within the disability community and to dismantle systemic inequities related to race, gender identity, poverty, and more.
By bridging independent living values with the framework of disability justice, CPWD is deepening its commitment to intersectional equity and cross-movement solidarity, ensuring that our work supports not only independence but also justice.
The IL Movement and the Disability Justice Movement are distinct but deeply aligned. Both prioritize:
Self-determination
Peer leadership
Community over institutionalization
Systemic change over surface-level inclusion
Where disability justice expands the conversation to include race, gender identity, economic status, and queerness more explicitly, independent living provides the service/support and philosophical roots. Together, they create a powerful continuum, moving from rights to equity, from independence to interdependence, from access to justice.
Disability justice is rooted in intersectionality, collective care, and the belief that true liberation cannot be achieved in isolation. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing and valuing all identities, cultural, gendered, neurodivergent, and linguistic, as integral to understanding disability. It reframes interdependence not as weakness, but as a core component of thriving communities.
In this light, Disability Pride becomes more than a celebration of identity; it becomes a call to action. It asks institutions, policymakers, and cultural leaders to move beyond performative inclusion and toward meaningful, structural change.
So this July, let Disability Pride Month be a catalyst for action to amplify the voices of people with disabilities, prioritize accessibility in all systems and structures, and honor the history while building a more inclusive future.
Take pride not in how people with disabilities have “overcome,” but in how far we’ve come, and in the fullness of who we are.