🍩 A11y Crumb: Disability Pride Month as a Disabled Dreamer 🌈✨ ...and an exciting announcement!

A gentle reflection from a snack-loving, autistic, and disabled dreamer

Jul 10, 2025

Hi friends 🫖

✨ Exciting News!

I’ve just been awarded a scholarship to continue my studies in accessibility at Deque University! 🎉

This moment is more than a step forward in my career, it’s a step deeper into who I am.

Because I’m not just learning accessibility.
I’m living it.
Dreaming it.
Reimagining what our world could look like if access was baked in from the beginning, not as an afterthought at the end.

💖 This Disability Pride Month, I’m Done With Shame

I used to soften the truth.
I used to say “neurodivergent” instead of disabled.
I used to mask, push through, and try to fit in.

But not anymore.

This month, and every month going forward, I’m embracing my disabled identity without fear, apology, or shame.

I am autistic. I am disabled. And I am proud.

Image of a sketchbook with an illustration of an autistic woman wearing noise cancelling headphones looking up at the words “Disability Pride Month” surrounded by sparkles, and an art studio in the background.

I reject the internalized ableism that told me I had to hide.
I reject the idea that support is something to earn.
And I reject the systems that confuse productivity with worth.

Instead, I choose softness. Slowness. Access.
I choose me….

And if you’ve never heard of Disability Pride Month before, you’re not alone.
It’s not in most calendars. There are no big department store displays.
But for many of us, it’s one of the most important months of the year.

So today’s A11y Crumb is a soft, accessible intro to:

What Disability Pride Month is
Where it came from
Why it matters
And how I’m embracing it this year as a proudly disabled person choosing joy without shame

🌈 So... What is Disability Pride Month?

Disability Pride Month happens every July to honor and celebrate disabled people…not as inspiration or charity, but as powerful, diverse individuals with rich lives, cultures, and communities.

It marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990 a landmark moment in disability rights history in the U.S.

While the ADA is a U.S. law, Disability Pride Month has become an international movement:

💡 To celebrate disabled identity
💡 To fight ableism
💡 And to challenge the idea that being disabled is something to be ashamed of

🧠 Why Does Disability Pride Matter?

Because we’re taught directly and indirectly that disability is something to hide, fix, or overcome.
Because society rewards silence, masking, and “pushing through.”
Because access is still treated like an afterthought, not a right.
Because disabled people are too often excluded from education, employment, art, tech, community, and even conversations about diversity.

Disability Pride is about saying:

“I am not broken.”

“I don’t need to be fixed to be worthy.”

“I am allowed to take up space just as I am.”

💖 How I’m Celebrating This Year

I used to be afraid to call myself disabled.

I used to say “neurodivergent” or “different” or “invisible disability”…anything but the word disabled.

I carried internalized shame that wasn’t mine to hold.

But not anymore.

This year, I’m proudly saying:
💡 I am autistic.
💡 I am disabled.
💡 And I am not ashamed.

I still have hard days.
There is still grief, fatigue, and frustration.
Disability pride doesn’t erase that…but it gives me language, community, and the right to exist without apology.

🍰 Disability Pride Isn’t About Perfection

Being proud doesn’t mean I love every single part of being disabled.
It doesn’t mean I don’t still need support.
It just means I no longer accept shame from society or from the voice in my own head.

Pride is saying:

I can rest without guilt
I can ask for access without apology
I don’t have to mask who I am to be safe, loved, or included
My needs are not too much
My existence is not a burden

📌 If You’re Disabled & New to Pride…

You are welcome here.
Whether you’re out, questioning, newly diagnosed, undiagnosed, or just starting to explore what disability means for you, there’s space for you.

Disability Pride is not one-size-fits-all.
You don’t need to be loud, public, or polished.
You can be proud quietly, gently, imperfectly, and in the way that fits your body, your access needs, your story.

With pride, rest, and soft resistance,
Lauren 🍰🫖✨
Your friendly autistic accessibility nerd, Deque scholar & disabled dreamer

#A11yCrumbs #DisabilityPrideMonth #DisabledAndProud #SayTheWord #CripFutures #NeurodivergentStrength #EndAbleism #SoftTechRevolution