{"id":32178,"date":"2023-07-21T12:05:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T11:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=32178"},"modified":"2023-07-21T12:05:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T11:05:25","slug":"what-disability-pride-month-means-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/what-disability-pride-month-means-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Disability Pride Month means to me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This July is Disability Pride Month 2023. Originating in the US, it has become an internationally recognised awareness month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly what disability pride means seems to vary from person to person, but some examples include celebrating diversity and raising awareness of the barriers disabled people face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, it\u2019s prompted me to think about what \u201cdisability pride\u201d means to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steven<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s not always easy to feel proud of being disabled<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I was asked to write a blog for Disability Pride Month, the first thing I thought about was: \u201cAm I actually proud of my disability?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m deafblind and have recently been diagnosed with autism as an adult. I have very mixed feelings about my life as a disabled person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My life is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating. I have times that are full of laughter and friendships, and times when I feel very lonely. When I\u2019m down, it can be hard to feel proud of my disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the question is: how many of the challenges I face are actually due to my disabilities, and how many are due to the way society views disabled people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hearing loss means I do struggle to hear in social settings, and my autism means I can struggle with certain situations. But beyond this, there are so many societal barriers that disabled people like me face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative attitudes to disabled people impact how I feel about myself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recently, we\u2019ve seen a lot of stories in the media focussing in on how society treats those who need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My hope is that, by campaigning for change disabled people in the future will be able to live the lives they want to lead free from discrimination and the barriers that create so much challenge.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The TV show Jeremy Vine on 5 recently asked whether taxpayers should continue to pay for benefits for people who didn\u2019t work. The debate showed no understanding that many disabled and chronically ill people aren\u2019t able to work, or face negative attitudes from employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At around the same time, the Telegraph asked ‘Exactly how much of your salary is going towards Britain\u2019s ever growing welfare state?’<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depictions of disabled people as benefits scroungers or burdens really does have a negative impact on how some disabled people are made to feel about themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel pride in my work trying to create a better society<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Campaigning is a vital way of trying to bring about societal change. That\u2019s why I\u2019m proud of the role I play in the campaigns team at Sense.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over recent years, we\u2019ve campaigned on a range of topics that matter to disabled people. We\u2019ve tackled the issue of loneliness among disabled people<\/a>, and we\u2019ve fought for disabled people\u2019s experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic to be the heart of the public inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, we handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street<\/a>, signed by over 80,000 amazing supporters, highlighting the challenges faced by disabled people and their families during the ongoing cost of living crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where I take pride in being disabled. I\u2019m proud to be part of a community that\u2019s fighting for a better, more inclusive society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hope is that, by campaigning for change disabled people in the future will be able to live the lives they want to lead free from discrimination and the barriers that create so much challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July is Disability Pride Month. This year, it\u2019s prompted me to think about what \u201cdisability pride\u201d means to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":32180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[110],"class_list":["post-32178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-steven-morris"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32178"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=32178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}