Today is the Disability Day of Mourning. The day we take to remember all the disabled people who have been murdered by caregivers, parents, relatives, etc for nothing other than the fact that they were disabled.
It’s especially poignant this year because with HR620 weakening the ADA, the fights over the ACA, and then FL’s Baker Act being overhauled and the fact that with the recent shootings, mental health stigma is at an all time high and both the mentally ill and the disabled are currently being demonized more in the press.
There’s talk here and there about asylums and institutionalization and I can’t help but wonder how many more people are going to lose their lives or just up and disappear and we never really know what else happens to them.
I wonder if it’ll be me one day.
See;
I don’t need to be cured.
I don’t need to be fixed.
I won’t allow you to ignore me.
I won’t allow you to minimize me.
I don’t have to earn my personhood.
I’m not worthless.
I’m not broken.
I won’t be silent. Because;
I AM disabled.
I AM a user of adaptive tech.
I AM a person.
I AM whole.
I AM worthy of respect.
I WILL defend myself and my peers.
I WILL call you out on your ableism.
I WILL keep advocating for accessibility.
Today we light a candle and say the names of the dead. Tomorrow we keep fighting.