The Everyone Environment

Disability Pride

Written by

Steven Deobald

in

I saw Sophie’s #DisabilityPrideMonth post two days ago. I don’t normally make a point of re-reading tweets, but I’ve revisited it a dozen times, due to its clarity.

I have been staring at an empty Emacs buffer for an hour now. I have been trying to think of some sincere and supportive words I could add to Sophie’s. The best I can do is this: I will try to follow her example.

Sophie's floss.social Mastodon post, containing the following text: July is #DisabilityPrideMonth Wait, disability ... pride? Why would someone be proud to be disabled? One of the most important aspects of disability pride for me is to counter the shame. The shame of “being different,” the shame of “needing help,” the shame of “being a burden,” the shame from the humiliation and abuse I have experienced. Disability pride gives me the chance to counter the shame by saying, “I am disabled, and I am proud to exist and be who I am.”

Thank you, Sophie. Thank you to the GNOME community for providing a welcoming space that allows us all to be who we are. And thank you to the GNOME contributors who work on the #a11y features which enable users like me to access a computer at all: Hari Rana, Jeff Fortin Tam, Bilal Elmoussaoui, Matthias Clasen, Claire, Emmanuele Bassi, Lukáš Tyrychtr, Sam Hewitt (and all our Design team, who take very seriously), Eitan Isaacson, Mike Gorse, Samuel Thibault, Georges Stavracas, and many more.

 

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