What If Disability Pride Month Is Part of the Problem?
Tomorrow, Disability Pride Month ends.
Which got me thinking...
Why are we so comfortable dedicating one month to something that affects over a billion people every single day?
Imagine if someone said,
"We'll value innovation this July, teamwork in September, and safety every February."
Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Because the best workplaces don't pull inclusion off a shelf once a year.They build it into every decision they make.
I've spent this month sharing stories about Cerebral Palsy. About being picked last in gym class. About interviews where someone chose to see my qualifications before my diagnosis. About invisible exhaustion.
About engineering my own way through life because my brain and body have been having a thirty-four-year disagreement over how to button a shirt.
(For the record, my shirt usually wins.)
We've laughed. We've challenged assumptions. We've talked about barriers that have nothing to do with wheelchairs and everything to do with mindsets.
But here's my question...
What happens tomorrow? Do the conversations stop because August showed up? Do we pack away inclusion with the decorations? Do companies check the box because they hosted a lunch, shared a social media post, or changed their logo for thirty-one days?
I hope not.
Because disabilities don't expire on August 1st. Neither should our curiosity.
One of the biggest lessons Cerebral Palsy has taught me is that movement doesn't always look the way people expect. Sometimes progress is slow. Sometimes it looks awkward. Sometimes it takes a completely different route than everyone else.
But it's still movement and that's what inclusion should look like too. Not one month, but Motion.
I've said it before, and I believe it even more today. Inclusion isn't an event. It's a direction. It's choosing curiosity over assumptions every time you meet someone new. It's asking, "How can we remove this barrier?" instead of, "Can they do the job?" It's recognizing that accommodation doesn’t lower expectations. They allow people to meet them. It's seeing strengths before limitations. It's remembering that qualifications speak louder than diagnoses.
Disability Pride Month has never been about celebrating disability for thirty-one days.
It's about reminding the world of something it shouldn't need reminding of. That people with disabilities have always been here.
We've always contributed. We've always innovated. We've always found different ways to accomplish the very same goals. We don't stop existing tomorrow.
So maybe instead of saying, "Happy last day of Disability Pride Month," we should say something different.
Maybe we should say...See you tomorrow.
Because tomorrow is when inclusion actually gets tested. Not when the banners are hanging and when they’re gone. That's when leaders decide whether inclusion was a campaign. Or whether it became part of their culture.
The goal was never to make Disability Pride Month bigger. The goal is to make it less necessary.
The day we no longer need one month to remind people to see our value...
That's the day we'll know we've truly moved forward.
