Celebrating Disability Pride Month and #ADA32
The Month of July holds significant meaning in the lives of all individuals living with disabilities, and for our communities at large.
July is Disability Pride Month, which commemorates the passing of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in July 1990. This event was the world’s first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
For the past 32 years this month, the ADA has prohibited disability discrimination by State and local governments; provided standards for access to places of public accommodation; protected people with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace; and ensured equal access to health care, social services, transportation, and telecommunications.
Disability Pride Month exists to proclaim, reaffirm, and recharge this feat each year to ensure a continued, collective effort to see all people, regardless of their abilities, fairly treated and accepted in all spheres of life. It is a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions of individuals with disabilities, everywhere.
The Disability Pride Month flag (as seen above) was designed by Ann Magill and updated in 2021 to ensure accessibility. Each color of the Disability Pride Flag represents a different type of disability: physical (red), cognitive and intellectual (yellow), invisible and undiagnosed (white), psychosocial (blue), and sensory (green). The charcoal background symbolizes mourning and rage for the victims of ableist violence and abuse, and the colored bands are placed diagonally to convey persons with disabilities “cutting across” societal barriers.
Despite the progress we have made through the years, our work is far from over. Many individuals still face barriers to inclusion and equitable access in our society. That is why Hope Services remains committed to connecting clients with local resources, from employment, to mental health care, to senior services, and more.
Join us in celebrating the 32nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and in the continued work toward equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for thousands of local residents with disabilities, and for the 61 million individuals with disabilities throughout our country.
HOPE SERVICES CLIENT FEATURE
The Learning Experience, By Jane
We learn from everything we do. We learn from mistakes and from good experiences too.
Sometimes our inner voice tells us when something we are doing may be wrong but we don’t always listen to it cause the other side of our brain is singing a different song.
We really need to listen to our gut feeling, that feeling of intuition. Because it might protect us from being in a really bad position. The other day I had a bad feeling about something I was doing but I didn’t listen to my inner voice. That’s something that I really need to start doing it’s a much better choice.
Everybody has that inside voice that tells them when something is not quite right and if you learn to listen to that voice which is basically your conscience, then you’ll do the right thing and that’s dynamite.
Feeling bad after a mistake occurs is normal to go through. But then pick yourself up and dust yourself off and again go do what you do.
In living life mistakes occasionally happen because we are human and humans make mistakes. However if you learn from them and then don’t repeat them that means you definitely got what it takes.
Remember every single day to learn and expand your mind, listen to your inner voice and to yourself be kind.
– Jane