JenTen Productions

Compelling Storytelling

Disability Pride

Summer & Disability Pride 2023

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We’ve been doing a lot of work with Arc Chapters across the United States. The national organization as well as local chapters have great resources and information about Disability Pride Month. They have some terrific suggestions about ways to celebrate in July.

Here’s a little historical context about the roots of Disability Pride we found on The Valuable 500’s website.

“While disability pride and parades are a relatively new concept, the idea of Disability Pride is rooted in the same foundation as movements like LGBTQ+ and Black Pride. In 2013, Chicago’s Disability Pride Parade defined their mission in three ways: ‘To change the way people think about and define “disability,” to break down and end the internalised shame among people with Disabilities, and to promote the belief in society that Disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity in which people living with disabilities can take pride.’”

The Valuable 500 is a global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion.

Visit our socials and let us know how you’re celebrating disability pride!

Springing Into Action

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We’ve had an exciting couple of months. Here are some highlights during Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and Autism and Neurodiversity Acceptance Month.

  • Awarded “Most Impactful Documentary” by the 2023 cohort of Partners in Policymaking Alabama
  • Kicked off programming for the inaugural Broadening Inclusion Grant at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through an event with the Special Education Graduate Student Association (SEGSA)
  • Participated in Disability Pride Week at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania
  • Collaborated with the Career and Life Studies Certificate (CLCS) Program at the University of Delaware

There is a terrific resource that has information on inclusive post-secondary programs like CLCS. It’s called Think College and it is dedicated to developing, expanding, and improving research and practice in inclusive higher education for students with intellectual disability.

Summer — Disability Pride, ADA Anniversary and More

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One of the highlights of the summer was filming employees sharing their thoughts about Disability Pride and the ADA Anniversary. Over 15 employees participated in our shoot! Check out the results on Hearts of Glass Instagram! We’ve been getting more and more into “reels.”

Here’s a little background on how July became Disability Pride Month:

Disability Pride initially started as a day of celebration in 1990—the year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day. The first official celebration of Disability Pride Month occurred in July 2015, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the ADA. Since then, cities across the country have celebrated disability pride month with parades and other festivities.

Disability Pride Month celebrates disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of who they are, reclaiming visibility in public and interacting fully with their disabilities out in the open, and rejecting shame and internalized ableism. It is a time for the disability community to come together, uplift, and amplify one another’s voices and be heard. Disability pride has been described as “accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”

Source: www.americanbar.org