July is Disability Pride Month! In 2021, DASA celebrated by researching the history of disability pride events around the world.

Timeline of Disability Pride Events

• July 26, 1990 - The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law by George Bush Sr.: “Introduction to the ADA” ada.gov

  • Activism Behind the Americans with Disabilities Act Included the ‘Capitol Crawl’ - HISTORY

• July 1990 - The first ever disability pride day held in Boston, MA, organized by Diana Viets and Catharine Odette: Q&A: Disability Pride Parade. Another parade was held 1991, but after the death of Viets that year no more parades were organized.

  • “Diana was an energetic young woman with a disability who dedicated her life to empowering young people with disabilities to take an active role in the Independent Living movement. Through her work at a Center for Independent Living and the NCIL Board, Diana touched the lives of many youth with disabilities.” (https://ncil.org/2021-annual-conference-on-independent-living/awards/)

• July 26, 1992 - First NYC disability independence day march (held annually until 1996): Disability Pride PA: What is Disability Pride

• July 25, 1993 - Disability Independence Day march in NYC: 1993 Disability Pride March in NYC (5 minutes, CC, no audio description)

  • A bunch of articles and recordings by Nadina LaSpina, one of the organizers: Nadina LaSpina - ActivismNadina LaSpina’s website

• July 18, 2004 - First disability pride parade in Chicago, arguably first ever disability pride parade, at least under that name: More Turn Out Than Expected At First Disability Pride Parade (July 20, 2004)

  • Founded by Sarah Triano (​​Disability Pride Chicago FAQ)

• 2010 - First disability pride in Mountain View, CA: https://web.archive.org/web/20150328233735/http://www.svilc.org/index.php/parade/pride-parade-festival-2014

• 2011 - First disability pride parade in Trenton, NJ: https://web.archive.org/web/20140528005750/http://www.adacil.org/nj-disability-pride-parade#.VQnGJ1yWsXR

• 2012 - National Constitution Center acquires the wheelchair used by Dart when he watched the ADA be signed, which sparked the first disability pride parade in Philadelphia: Disability Pride PA: What Is Disability Pride?

  • Disability Pride PA also does a bunch of other cool stuff like disability-friendly sex ed

  • Philidelphia now celebrates Disability Pride Week in mid-June: Getting up to speed: Disability Pride Week. The annual spotlight on Philly’s oft-forgotten residents

• July 27, 2013 - First disability pride parade in Madison: History of the Disability Pride Madison Festival. The event was organized by Jason Glozier, Sara Karon, and Karen Milstein. Sara Karon was Catharine Odette’s partner and participated in the first disability pride parade in 1990. Disability Pride Madison: About Us

• July 24, 2014 - Disability pride parade in Boston: Mayor’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities Disability Pride Parade and ADA Celebration Day, Boston

• Approximately 2014 - First disability pride parade in Berlin: Disability Pride in Germany (article in German)

• July 12, 2015 - First disability pride parade in New York City: New York’s First Disability Pride Parade - WSJ

  • The New York disability pride parade is organized by nonprofit Disability Pride NYC, whose CEO is the parent of a child with Prader-Willi syndrome Disability Pride New York City | Inclusion, Awareness, Visibility

  • That year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared July disability pride month to celebrate 25th anniversary of the signing of the ADA: De Blasio declares July as ‘Disability Pride Month’ in honor of Americans With Disabilities Act’s 25th anniversary

• October 9th, 2016 - First disability pride parade in LA: Southern California’s Disability Pride Parade, Festival & Faire

• 2016 - First disability pride week in Wellington, Aotearoa (New Zealand): Disability Pride Aotearoa

• 2016 October is first celebrated as disability pride month in LA county.

• 2018 - First abilitySTRONG disability pride parade in San Antonio: 2020 ABILITYSTRONG PARADE - About

Other relevant dates and events

• March - National disability awareness month
• October - Disability employment awareness month AND Disability action month AND LA disability pride month
• December 3 - UN international day of persons with disabilities

Resources: 

• An attempt to list all disability pride parades up to 2015: A brief history of disablity pride parades
• History of Disability Pride Madison
• Wikipedia: Disability Pride Parades
• Wikipedia: Disability Pride Week
• Map of disability pride events