Now More Than Ever: Disability Pride Month

As a chronically ill and disabled adult, July always holds a special place for me. It gives me the opportunity to pause and respect the decades of advocacy and intentional work that generations of people have put in to create better and safer futures for disabled individuals and their caregivers. 

July is Disability Pride Month, unofficially, and has been celebrated since 2015 - to mark the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. July 26, 2025 marks the 35th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. The federal government was reluctant to engage with advocates, let alone pass legislation to support individuals with disabilities. This was in thanks to the lobbying efforts of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, co-founded by Patrisha Wright, and advocacy events such as the Capitol Crawl in March 1990 in which dozens of disabled people pulled themselves up all 100 steps of the Capitol building to highlight the building’s lack of accessibility (and inaccessibility across our nation in general). Though there were numerous groups advocating against passage of the bill, including many church groups, the bill passed with a unanimous House voice vote and a 76-6 Senate vote. The president signed the bill and said, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” 

The bill required a multitude of changes across America, including the requirements of entry ramps, Braille on signs, automatic doors, curb cuts, and lifts on city buses, etc. to support the more than 61 million Americans living with disabilities. In 2025, more than 1 in 4 Americans - over 70 million - have a disability. 

Disability Pride Month is a time to celebrate advocates, organizations, patients, and caregivers who have fought hard and maximized opportunities to ensure equitable lived experiences for all disabled communities. 

At the same time, celebrating the passage of the ADA also requires a commitment to fighting for the rights and opportunities (formerly enshrined) that are being taken away in our current political situation . 

For instance, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” aka H.R.1 of the 119th Congress, will reduce Medicaid funding anywhere from $800 billion to $1 trillion nationwide. This represents the largest cut in program history. HR1 increases work/volunteer mandates for adults, who will now need to log 80 hours/month with increased administrative burdens on themselves and others to document labor completed. This will require an increase in eligibility checks which will add paperwork issues and related delays. HR 1 will also increase copays, reduce in-home and community-based services, and place restrictions on noncitizen and retroactive coverage. 

“Disability is a part of the rich tapestry of human diversity, and something that nearly all of us will experience at some point in our lives.” 

• Jackie Dilworth, Comms Director, The Arc of the United States 

The disability pride flag has gone through a few iterations as the community organized to synthesize experiences and priorities. The current flag includes: 

(include image of current flag) 

• Faded Black Background: the anger and mourning over the eugenics and the neglect that disabled people have to fight against” 

• Red: Physician Disabilities

• Gold: Neurodiversity

• White: Invisible Disabilities and Disabilities that haven’t been diagnosed

• Blue: Emotional and Psychiatric Disabilities, including mental illness, anxiety, and depression 

• Green: Sensory disabilities, including deafness, blindness, lack of smell, lack of taste, audio processing disorder, and all other sensory disabilities

Disability advocacy is more important than ever. Though we have decades of inspiring and impactful advocacy to build on, the current administration has sought to undermine disability rights.

Advocacy Efforts include: 

• Being a registered voter 

• Advocating for disabled Hoosiers‘ rights to your representatives 

• Getting involved with organizations that support disabled Hoosiers’ rights 

• Chatting with impacted friends or family, and seek to understand their disability status 

• Communicating with friends and family about changes to their coverage and issues that may cause disruption in their care 

Educating ourselves to be prepared for engagement with disability rights activism can include works such as: 

Books

• No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement byJoseph P. Shapiro

• Enabling Acts: The Hidden Story of How the Americans with Disabilities Act Gave the Largest U.S. minority Its Rights byLennard J. Davis

• The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation byDoris Zames Fleisher & Frieda Zames 

• Being Heumann: An Unrepresented Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann

• Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir by Terry Galloway

• Haben: The Deafblind Women Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

• Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century, edited by Alice Wong

• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha 

Documentaries

• Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution | Netflix

• Lives Worth Living | PBS

• The Power of 504 | Youtube 

• Deej | Kanopy 

• Who Cares About Kelsey? | Amazon Video 

• Certain Proof: A Question of Worth | Apple TV 

• Rooted in Rights | Youtube