“Disability Pride” is defined as accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural part of human diversity. In addition to promoting awareness, acceptance, and inclusion, Disability Pride Month celebrates the history, culture, the unique experiences that people with disabilities experience, and the contributions each individual with differing abilities offers to society. Over the past 30 years the disability community has made great strides in terms of access and inclusion, but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure people are seen before their disability. We still need to amplify the voices of the disability community, challenge stigma, and continue to create change.

To celebrate this year’s Disability Pride Month, we have created a campaign launching the first week of July called #ProudToBeMe to encourage people with disabilities, along with their families, allies, advocates, community members, and our Easterseals associates, to share why they are proud to be a member of the disability community. 

We will be sharing video clips with the hashtags #ProudToBeMe, #ProudToBeADisabilityAdvocate, #ProudToBeADisabilityAlly and the hashtag #DisabilityPrideMonth as a call to action for all within the disability community. Our goal is to create further discussions about visibility, representation, and education.  

You can participate by sharing our posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and tagging @eastersealssocal along with the hashtag #DisabilityPrideMonth and #ProudToBeMe or by making your own.