Disability Pride Month – July 2025

Disability Pride Month is observed in July each year to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990. The month celebrates people with disabilities, their identities, and their contributions to society. It also seeks to change public perception of disability, promoting the belief that disability is a natural and valuable part of human diversity, rather than something to be ashamed of or fixed. According to the CDC, over 1 in 4 adults in the United States have a disability – 28.7 percent, according to a 2024 survey. This month’s spotlight outlines local events, historic moments, notable figures and inventions, and media recommendations to celebrate this identity shared by so many.

2025 Disability Pride Events

July 20 – Teen Film Screening of A Quiet Place at the West Chicago Avenue branch of the Chicago Public Library from 1:00pm-3:00pm. This horror film follows a family struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by monsters who are drawn to sound. See the CPL website for details.

July 25 – The Merlo branch of the Chicago Public Library is hosting a screening of the documentary Code of the Freaks from 2:00pm-3:30pm. The film critiques and reframes the use of disabled characters in movies across over a century of the filmmaking industry. Find out more here.

July 26 – Disability Pride Parade in the South Loop at 11:00 a.m. For parade route details and additional information, click here.

July 29 – Join Chicago drummer and bandleader Tommy Carrol for an interactive musical program celebrating Disability Pride. Hosted by the Sulzer Regional Library from 6:00pm-7:00pm. More details can be found at the website.

Disability Rights Timeline

1932

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first person with a documented disability to be elected President. FDR was paralyzed from the waist down after contracting an illness, possibly polio, in 1921.

1950

After years of lobbying by disabled veterans and other people with disabilities, the first national standards for “barrier-free” buildings are enacted.

1974

The last “ugly law” – a type of city ordinance forbidding people with visible disabilities from appearing in public – is repealed in Chicago, Illinois. Under these laws, anyone considered “unsightly” or “disfigured” could be arrested or fined as a public nuisance.

1975

The Education for Handicapped Children Act – later reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) – is signed into law, guaranteeing a free appropriate public education for students with disabilities.

1977

Disability rights activists led by Judy Heumann occupy the federal office of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) in San Francisco, demanding the implementation of Section 504 regulations. The occupation lasts 28 days – the longest such protest in US history.

1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law, prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in all areas of public life.

2004

The first Disability Pride Parade is held in Chicago. Organizers expect 500 or so attendees; nearly 2,000 people show up to march.

2009

Rosa’s Law is signed by President Obama, replacing the term “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in official health, education and labor documents. The law is named for Rosa Marcellino, a then-9-year-old activist with Down syndrome.

Famous Figures

Justin Dart Jr.

Justin Dart Jr. became a wheelchair user at age 18 after contracting polio. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him vice-chair of the National Council on Disability. In this position, Dart and his wife Yoshiko traveled to all 50 states to collect the stories of people with disabilities. Their goal was to use these anecdotes to craft legislation that would address discrimination against disabled people in every area of American life. That legislation became the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his activism in 1998. He died in 2002, leaving behind his legacy as the “father of the ADA”.

Michael J. Fox

Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor Michael J. Fox is known for his roles in the sitcoms Family Ties and Spin City, as well as movies like Back to the Future. While filming Doc Hollywood in 1991, Fox noticed a tremor in his pinky finger, which led to a diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29. He went public with his diagnosis in 1998 and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000. The foundation is now the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, raising over $2.5 billion in total. Fox has received numerous awards for his philanthropy, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, written five books, and produced a documentary about his experiences.

Haben Girma

Haben Girma became the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School in 2013. Since then, she has distinguished herself as a disability rights attorney, earning a Hellen Keller Achievement Award and being named a White House Champion of Change. Girma was appointed to serve on the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Connection in 2023. She now travels the globe advocating for more accessible, resilient, and connected communities – and challenges people to avoid calling her “inspirational”.

Judith Heumann

Judith Heumann is known as the “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement”. She made headlines in 1970 when she sued the New York City Board of Education for denying her teaching license because of her disability; when the board settled, she became the first teacher in the state to use a wheelchair. Heumann is probably best known for organizing the Section 504 sit-in in 1977, but she also helped launch the Independent Living Movement, co-founded the World Institute on Disability, and played a key role in developing major legislation, including the ADA. In the last years of her life, she published her memoir, Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. She died in 2023.

Assistive Technology and the Curb-Cut Effect

Many innovations designed to help people with disabilities end up benefiting the entire community. This phenomenon is referred to as the “curb-cut effect”. For example, closed captions, first used to make news broadcasts accessible to the deaf in the 1970s, are becoming increasingly popular among hearing viewers. A recent survey conducted by Netflix found that over 80% of subscribers use the closed captioning feature. Here are some other items you may regularly use that were originally designed to accommodate disabilities:

• Keyboards
• OXO brand kitchen tools
• Audiobooks
• Bendy straws
• Voice-recognition software, including digital assistants like “Alexa” or “Siri”
• Electric toothbrushes

The reverse of the curb-cut effect can also occur, where a technology popular among the able-bodied is redirected to help people with disabilities. One example is 3D printing. As 3D printers become more popular and more cost-effective, they have become a source for durable, low-cost prosthetics. Organizations like e-NABLE match amputees in need with volunteers who make custom prosthetics with open-source code.

Media Recommendations

Books

The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus

This poetry collection by deaf British Jamaican writer Raymond Antrobus explores themes of disability, community, communication and identity. It won the Rathbones Folio Prize in 2019.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Chicago writer and cartoonist Emil Ferris created this two-volume graphic novel to help her recover from severe paralysis caused by West Nile fever when she was 40 years old. It tells the story of a creature feature-obsessed young girl in Chicago who sets out to solve the mystery of her neighbor’s death.

Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong

This collection features essays by various writers with a wide range of disabilities, examining the joys and challenges of disabled adulthood in modern America.

Movies & TV

CODA

Ruby is a child of deaf adults (CODA), the only hearing member of her family. When she joins her high school’s choir club to spend time with her crush, she finds herself torn between a newfound passion for music and helping her family’s struggling fishing business. Winner of the 2022 Academy Award for Best Picture. Stream on Apple TV+.

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

In the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, Camp Jened provided a free-spirited summer camp experience for children and teens with disabilities for decades. This documentary follows several campers from the 1970s who went on to become leaders in the disability rights movement. Stream on Netflix.

The Peanut Butter Falcon

A young man with Down syndrome escapes from an assisted living facility to pursue his dreams of pro wrestling. On the way to train under his hero, he makes unlikely friends: a fisherman-turned-outlaw and a social worker. This indie film was praised by critics for its portrayal of intellectual disabilities and the performance of star Zack Gottsagen, who has Down syndrome. Stream on Prime Video.

Love on the Spectrum

This reality TV show follows several adults on the autism spectrum as they navigate romance and dating. Despite some complexity and controversy, the series has received positive reviews from autistic critics like Allison Wall for portraying its subjects as “empathetic, humanized individuals . . . with agency.” Stream on Netflix.

Our Flag Means Death

Loosely based on the life of Stede Bonnet, this comedy series follows the misadventures of the “Gentleman Pirate” and his ragtag crew as they cross paths with the infamous Blackbeard. The series has been praised for its representation of disability, LGBTQ+ relationships, and characters of color. Stream on HBO Max.

Sources: https://disabilities.temple.edu/resources/disability-rights-timeline, https://enablingthefuture.org/#:~:text=What%20is%20e%2DNABLE?,to%20have%20you%20join%20us, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/judith-heumann, https://allison-wall.com/2022/05/28/love-on-the-spectrum-u-s-representation-or-exploitation-a-review/, https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/items-invented-people-with-disabilities.htm, https://habengirma.com/faq/, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justin-Dart-Jr, https://www.chipublib.org/news/celebrate-disability-pride-month-with-cpl-2/, https://www.disabilityprideparade.org/