July is Disability Pride Month. The first Disability Pride started in Boston, MA in 1990 but it has since become an international celebration. The aim of Disability Pride is described by the founders of Disability Pride NYC to “promote inclusion, awareness, and visibility of people with disabilities, and redefine public perception of disability”.

The disability pride flag

The Disability Pride flag has some very interesting symbolism interpreted by the artist which include:

The Black Field: this field is to represent the disabled people who have lost their lives due to not only their illness, but also negligence, suicide, and eugenics.

The Lightning Bolt: the shape of the lightning bold represent the non-lateral lives that many disabled people live, often having to adapt themselves or their physical routes to get around an inaccessible society.

The Colours: each colour on this flag represents a different aspect of disability or impairment:

Blue: mental illness

Yellow: cognitive and intellectual disabilities

Green: sensory perception disabilities

You are part of our history, our community and our fight.

But you know what? Nothing is stopping us from making the above flag more accessible to those of us with visual processing issues. Maybe widen the stripes?

Adaptability is key to disability thriving and there is no reason we cant adapt it to accommodate a wider set of needs.

Also I’m going to add this because I wrote it in my original tags and people keep adding it in:

@queerspacepunk This one by @ari-juniper is great at not giving me vertigo from having lots of thin stripes and zigzags in next to each other. I love the idea of the lightning bolt one too, but yeah it definitely hurts my brain to try and process.

Ari also did this one: