People With Disabilities Are Epic Activists

4 min readApr 15, 2021

A group of people with disabilities hold up protest signs such as “Make Equality The Policy”

People with disabilities are among the fiercest activists around. And those of us without physical and mental disabilities might need to step up our game to match their impact.

Did you know that people with disabilities are the largest minority group? Around 15% of people have disabilities.

Disability Rights

Although the disability activism fight started a long time ago, we have more work to do.

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was landmark legislation.

“The ADA…prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life…” — ada.gov

Finally, people with disabilities were closer to equal rights. With this support came more power over their lives.

ADA Enforcement

But having good policy is only a start. The ADA’s goal: equality and no discrimination. Wonderful, right? But this bold goal has not been achieved. Enforcing laws is sometimes tricky.

For example, on April 7, 2021, an appeals court ruled that a grocery store’s website was not included in the ADA. Sadly, the visually impaired cannot access the website.

Another example: access to voting is an issue. Activists started the hashtag #CripTheVote to make voting more user-friendly.

Underfunding

Government support services for people with disabilities can end up being a sort of Hunger Games. They do not adequately fund programs. It is less about what a person needs and more about how services are doled out.

And now, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the issue of who gets healthcare. So, in times of scarce resources, we evaluate people for their contributions to society.

Who gets to decide a person’s worthiness? This is a concern of disability justice.

Disability Justice

A wheelchair-using woman and a standing man. He holds a sign that says “We are all humans.”

Legislation is a powerful tool, but it does not solve the root issue. We must change how society perceives people with disabilities.

The world tends to see people with disabilities as less worthy than others. This is called ableism.

We need disability justice that changes existing systems and creates a culture of equity. For example, people without disabilities make assumptions about what people with disabilities can do. Often without their input.

So, we don’t have justice until we see every person as a worthy, whole society member.

We can do better.

Your Activism

If you are a person with disabilities and want to make a difference, find the method that works best for you. Mental and physical health must be a priority. Despite that, there are many ways to make change.

People without disabilities can make a significant difference for those with disabilities. Disability activism may not be the cause closest to your heart. And that’s okay. But we all need to support the disability community. So, check out my post on engaging with your cause closest to your heart while supporting other causes.

Then read “How To Do Something Good In The Disability Community if You’re Not Disabled.” Andrew Pulrang provides tips to ensure people with disabilities have agency to control the change, with the support of others:

“Clarify for yourself where your interest in disability comes from.
Check your ideas, feelings, and priorities against what actual disabled people think and care about.
Try to support already existing projects and organizations that were started and run by disabled people.
Read and listen a lot before you speak.
Pass the mic and the baton to disabled people.
Be careful not to make it all about you.”