Disability Pride Month: Disability Pride Social Media Campaign

To recognize Disability Pride Month, the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center are putting together a social media campaign to highlight disability pride, positive disability identity development, and the disability community. If you would like to participate and be featured on the Instagram accounts of the Disability Access Center, Disability Outreach Center, and the Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement, please fill out the Disability Pride Month Social Media Campaign interest form. 

*Disability is used as an umbrella term to encompass physical, sensory, cognitive, neurodivergence, emotional/psychiatric, and undiagnosed disabilities and/or other identities and experiences including chronically ill, neurodivergent, Blind and low vision or partially sighted, Deaf, Deaf+, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing people. This is not meant to erase any identities or experiences but is used as a shorthand for clarity. If you use other identity terms or language, please feel free to indicate that.

Prompts:
• Prompt 1. Do you identify as disabled? If so, how did you come to understand yourself as disabled? If not, how do you identify and how did you come to that identity?
• Prompt 2. How does being disabled intersect with the other identities you hold and experiences you've had? How does being a part of the disability community intersect (or not intersect) with other communities you are a part of?
• Prompt 3. Do you have disability pride or pride in your disabled identity or another identity such as being Deaf, DeafBlind, or Hard of Hearing? If so, how did you develop a positive disability identity or pride in your identity?
• Prompt 4. Did your views of disability or the disability community change in college or at Western Washington University? If so, how and why?
• Prompt 5. What do you want non-disabled people to know about disability, disabled identities and experiences, and the disability community?

Ways To Participate:
• Film a video answering one of the prompts. The Disability Pride Month Planning Committee will create a video with captions and a video description. 
• Record audio answering one of the prompts. The Disability Pride Month Planning Committee will either create a video with captions or create a post with the transcript from your audio recording.
• Provide a written quote and your first name as well as any additional information you'd like to share (role at WWU, year, major, minor). The Disability Pride Month Planning Committee will create a post with your quote.
• Provide an anonymous written quote. The Disability Pride Month Planning Committee will create a post with your quote.

All WWU continuing and recently graduated students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate. You can answer one prompt, multiple, or all. Alumni are invited to participate by emailing your responses to the prompts and/or sending audio or video files to disability.outreach@wwu.edu.

Disclaimers:
• Responses to this form are only accessible by the supervisor of the Disability Outreach Center.
• Inclusion of information as part of the Disability Pride Month Social Media Campaign will be posted at the discretion of the Disability Pride Month Planning Committee.
• Please do not use this form as a mechanism to report accessibility concerns. For comments or concerns related to physical or digital barriers and accessibility, please fill out the Western Accessibility Barrier Form at https://www.wwu.edu/access/report.
• Please note that members of the Disability Pride Month Planning Committee are Responsible Employees (mandated reporters). Western employees must promptly report known or suspected sexual harassment, sexual violence, or other discrimination based on sex to the Title IX Coordinator, even if the misconduct occurred off campus. Please find resources including confidential resources such as the Counseling and Wellness Center and Survivor Advocacy Servies at https://crtc.wwu.edu/support-services.

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Disability Pride Month is celebrated every July and is an “opportunity to honor the history, achievements, experiences, and struggles” of the disabled community (The Arc, 2024). This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed July 26, 1990, the landmark legislation that broke down barriers to access and inclusion in society (The Arc, 2024). 2025 also marks the 52nd anniversary of the 504 Sit-In and passage of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the first federal civil rights protection for disabled people (Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, 2024).

For Disability Pride Month, the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center, in collaboration with the Neurodiversity Inclusion Collaborative and Disability Employee Resource Group, will have a variety of events and programming throughout July for students, faculty, and staff including the Disability Pride Flag Raising and Reception, Neurodiversity Inclusion Collaborative Meeting, Disability Employee Resource Group Reception, and Disability Pride Social Media Campaign. The Western Libraries will also be highlighting books in a Disability Pride Display throughout the month!

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Accessibility:
AA/EO. Accessibility Statement: This social media campaign is intended for all participants including those with apparent or non-apparent disabilities. If you have any questions or concerns or would like this form in an alternative accessible form, please email disability.outreach@wwu.edu.

Image Description: 
Banner for Disability Pride Month. Graphic has muted black background. The text reads, "July is... Disability Pride Month." The text is off-white except for the word 'Pride' with the color of each letter presenting the colors in the disability pride flag: red, yellow, white, blue, green. In the bottom left corner is a white oval with text in black that reads, "AA/EO. Accessibility Statement: These events are intended for all participants including those with apparent or non-apparent disabilities. For disability accommodation(s), please contact disability.outreach@wwu.edu. Advance notice is appreciated and sometimes necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs." In the bottom right corner is the DOC logo and the WWU logo.