July is Disability Pride Month

“Disability Pride Month is a time to show that we exist in joy, in colour, and in community. The disabled community deserve to take up space without shame or apology.”

We are part of the movement that won’t stay quiet about amplifying the voices of the disabled community and have come together to create a body of work that champions each individual for who they are. This year from conversations with the disabled community, we focused on creating imagery with joy and colour. The disabled community has spent generations being marginalized and misunderstood and we are determined to change that. We believe that every person should be acknowledged, valued, and respected and one way to do that is by recognizing Disability Pride Month. Recognizing it and then also using it as an excuse to cover the city with colour and joy that increases representation of people with disabilities.

“We are so often overlooked, dismissed, or tokenized.” “I spent a long time hiding my disabilities and not participating in disability pride, which only led to shame and isolation. Once I stopped hiding and chose to be proud of who I am and what makes me different, I became so much happier.”

This project was built in collaboration with people with lived experience in the disabled community and 25 of the 27 people involved on the photoshoot day come from under represented communities. The posters below which can be seen throughout the city of Vancouver have been designed with accessibility in mind. The font, front size, font colour, contrast levels, colours and clear white borders all sit in line with the aim of making sure the poster is accessible to as many people as we can make it.

Keep reading to learn more about what Disability Pride is all about.

Support the project here

Image Description: A poster featuring a diverse group of people with disabilities against a painted backdrop in the design of the disability pride flag. The overall message is one of inclusivity and empowerment and has an image of a group of people sitting and smiling at the camera in bright coloured clothing. The poster reads “July is Disability Pride Month. We deserve to be in this space.”

Video description: People with a variety of visible and non-visible disabilities are shown wearing bright colours that coincide with the disability Pride flag and match their background, red, green, yellow, black, and white. They smiling at a camera. “July is Disability Pride Month”. A model with a feeding pump in white dances. One model in a wheelchair wearing black laughs and another in red moves across the screen. “We exist in joy, colour and community” models are again seen moving and laughing. “We deserve to be in this space” A service dog jumps onto their persons lap. Both wearing blue. Montage of all the models grinning and smiling at camera.
End on a link to the full campaign.

Image Description: A collage featuring a diverse group of people with disabilities against painted backdrops in the design of the disability pride flag. The photos showcase a range of ages, genders, and types of disabilities conveying a powerful message of joy. The poster reads “July is Disability Pride Month. We exist in joy, in colour and community. Disabled joy is our resistance.”

What is Disability Pride Month about?

Disability Pride is celebrated every July after 1,000 people marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol in 1990 to demand that Congress pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. Approximately 60 activists physically demonstrated the inaccessibility of public spaces by getting out of their wheelchairs or setting aside their mobility aids and crawling up the Capitol steps in an act of civil disobedience that later became known as the Capitol Crawl. Because of this movement, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was created. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.

Now, every July we commemorate this achievement and take the time to honour the history, achievements, experiences, and struggles of the disability community. By listening and learning from people with lived experience, we all grow in becoming allies for the disabled community when it comes to advocacy and inclusion. Advocacy means that we fight for equal opportunities, help to remove barriers that exist in the world that we live in and implement change for communities that need it. Disability Pride Month gives us the opportunity to emphasizes the dignity and value of individuals with disabilities, promoting the idea that disability is a natural part of human diversity. For centuries we’ve seen people with disabilities marginalized and it’s time to challenge those negative stereotypes and misconceptions about disability to foster a more inclusive and understanding society.

Commonly disability can be portrayed as inspirational or tragic and still to this day the commercial advertising industry fails to represent people with disabilities in a way that is true to real life. This project was about fighting the stereotypes that exist and showing the beauty of the disabled community. After conversations with disabled individuals, this project began to take shape and was focused on the joy of each person and the diversity of everyones disabilities.

A look behind the scenes:

This shoot came together with the help of many individuals, including those with lived experience as a person with a disability.

Photographer, Director, Art Direction: Tilly Nelson | Videographer: Jacob Walker | Producer: Lisa Kaulback | Disability Consultant: Reedan Theissen | Wardrobe Stylist: Sarah Danniels | Hair and Make up Artists: Sonia Leal-Serafim and Eva Svobodova | Photography 1st Assist: Caroline Ross | Photography 2nd Assist: Cristina Gonzales | Photography 3rd Assist: Lorna Carmichael | BTS video and stills : Danielle Campani | Production Assistant: Michele D. Arthur | Graphic Designer & Content Accessibility Expert: Micaela Evans | Poster Distribution and printing: The Poster Guy