It’s Disability Pride Month!
For me, disability is not a tragedy or source of discomfort. It’s not even a medical condition. Disability is a framework that teaches you to prioritize the needs of your mind and body over the expectations of society. It’s a way of accepting and even celebrating the mind and body that you have for what it is, not rounding it up to something magical and superhuman, and not degrading it to a compromise or burden. Disability takes an infinite number of forms, so many in fact, there’s a good chance people around you have disabilities that you’d never know about.
If you’re looking to learn more about the experience of being disabled, chronically ill, or mentally ill, as well as disability activism, OR if you’re looking for resources to share with friends and family so they can better understand what you’re going through, check out the recommended articles below for ideas!
Disability
- Redefining Disability: An Identity of Adaptation and Creativity
- Ableism Bingo: Things to Never Say to a Disabled Person
- 10 Things I Love About Being Disabled
- Why Don’t I Ever See You Dancing? What is EDS?
- Could You Please Just Cease to Be?
Chronic Illness
- Why Chronic Illness Makes it So Hard to Leave Home
- Spoon Theory: What Silverware Has to Do with Chronic Illness
- Why I Stopped Taking Gabapentin
- 9 Things That Blocked My Access to Medical Treatment
Mental Health
- Lets End the Stigma Against Anti Depressants
- What Does Dissociation Feel Like?
- A Comprehensive Guide to Assisting with a Mental Health Crisis
- Early Signs That I Had Dissociative Identity Disorder
Interviews
- Interview with Alice Wong: Engaging with Stories of Disabled People
- Youtube Interview with Secular Sexuality on Sex and Disability
- Podcast Interview with Into Your Body on Sex and Disability
About the writer: Kella Hanna-Wayne is the creator, editor, and main writer for Yopp. She specializes in educational writing about civil rights, disability, chronic illness, abuse, and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her work has been published in Ms. Magazine blog, The BeZine, and Splain You a Thing and in 2022, she released a self-published book of poetry, “Pet: the Journey from Abuse to Recovery“. You can find her @KellaHannaWayne on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, and Twitter.