Hey all
I've been quiet lately, as I've been working hard on my webcomic (updates on that coming soon!) but with July being Disability Pride month, I wanted to do some art to celebrate!
Not a lot of people know that July is Disability Pride month, but it is! But what exactly does that mean, and what does this flag mean?
Well, Disability pride means something different to different disabled people, but at its core, it is about celebrating to progress the disabled community has made in recent years. July was chosen for Disability Pride Month, as it was the month when the USA passed the Americans With Disabilities Act, ensuring that disabled people's rights were protected under law and outlawing discrimination against disabled people in the USA. Unlike what many people believe, the ADA was the result of years of campaigning and protests from the Disabled Community, including the famous Capitol Crawl, where more than 1,000 protesters took to the US Capitol Building, and 60 disabled protestors got out of their wheelchairs or put aside their other mobility aids and crawled up the stairs leading to the building in order to demonstrate just how inaccessible society was. This protest came after years of being ignored and the community's concerns being dismissed by congress and other government bodies. The Capitol Crawl is considered the event that finally forced congress's hand and the ADA was passed only months later on July 26th, 1990.
Other countries, such as Australia, followed suit only a few years later, passing the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1992. Unfortunately, Australia's own Disability Rights Movement prior to the DDA is much harder to find any solid information on, but we did have our own version of the movement.
But this isn't all disability pride is about! For some, Disability pride is about learning to be ok with our bodies as they are and learning not to force ourselves to fit the expectations of non-disabled people. For others, it simply is about recognising and acknowledging the frustration of living in a world that is not designed for us and is often actively hostile. For some, it is about all of the above and for others, something entirely personal. All reasons for celebrating (or not) are valid!
A common misconception is that Disability Pride is about people "identifying" as disabled as though it was a gender or sexuality. So let me be absolutely clear, as both a disabled person and queer person, the two communities are SEPERATE. Despite similarities in the name, Disability Pride Month and the Disability Pride Flag are NOT connected to the LGBTQ+ community or LGBTQ+ pride.
As for the flag itself, it was designed by Ann Magill in 2019, or at least, the original version was. Her reason for designing the flag was two fold: at first, it stemmed from being underwhelmed by the celebration held for the anniversary of the ADA in her local independent living centre's basement. The second reason however was much more devastating.
[TW: Violence against the Disabled Community]
Ann states on Reddit that the first incident made her think about the idea, but in 2016, an attack against a group home for disabled people occurred in Sagamihara, Japan. A man went into the home and began attacking residents with a knife, killing 2 and injuring many more. When questioned why he did it, the attacker stated that he felt that disabled people were inherently miserable and it was better to just put them out of their misery. The incident itself was horrible, but according to Ann, what made it worse was that it dropped out of western media in less than a day.
Both incidents prompted Ann to design the flag and in 2019, she released the first version of it. It gained popularity, but people were quick to point out some issues with the design, most notably, that when scrolling past it on social media, the flag's original design - which featured 5, highly saturated zig-zagging lines - created a strobing effect, which could be dangerous for people who experience migraines or seizures. in 2021, Ann designed the "Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag" which features less saturated colours and does away with the zig-zag pattern. This is the version I used in my own artwork.
Each segment of the flag means something:
The Black Field represents Mourning and rage for victims of ableist violence and abuse. The Diagonal Band symbolises "Cutting across" the walls and barriers that separate the disabled from normal society, also light and creativity cutting through the darkness. The White Stripe is for Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities. The Red Stripe is for Physical Disabilities. The Gold Stripe is for Neurodivergence. The Blue Stripe is for Psychiatric Disabilities and the Green Stripe is for Sensory Disabilities. The colours themselves are also variants of the 6 standard national flag colours, symbolising the fact that the community is international and exists all over the world.
There are other disability flags, such as the "Overcoming flag" designed by Eros Recio, which features 3 evenly spaced, horizontal bands, the top gold, the middle silver and the bottom bronze, representing the coloured medals used in the Paralympics. This flag is still commonly used, however, many disabled people are choosing to use the "Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag" as they feel the Overcoming Flag puts too much emphasis on the Paralympians and overlooks the regular members of the Disabled community, not to mention many feel somewhat uncomfortable about the name. The Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag is generally seen as more widely inclusive of the two, but as it is still very new, many people are unaware of its existence.
Below I have a timelapse of the artwork, as well as a general summary of what Disability Pride is all about!
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