SUBJECT:
Title
Disability Pride Month
Body
DEPARTMENT: Legislation
Department
PRESENTER(S): Melissa Wiley, Deputy Town Manager
First Name, Last Name, Title
TIME ESTIMATE: 5 minutes
only required for non-consent items
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
Disability Pride Month is celebrated each year in July. It started as a day of celebration on July 26, 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That same year, the City of Boston held the first Disability Pride Day. In 2015, the state of New York became the first state to recognize the month of July as Disability Pride Month.
Disability advocates and the disability community recommend using “pride” instead of “awareness.” People with disabilities are the largest and most diverse minority group in the U.S. population, representing every age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background. Disability is a culture and an identity. In contrast, awareness portrays disability as a problem that needs to be fixed.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that roughly 1 in 4 (27%) of adults in the United States have some type of disability, and nearly 50% of adults over the age of 75 have a disability.
BOARD PRIORITY(S) ADDRESSED:
ü Engaged and Diverse Community
ü Effective Governance
ATTACHMENT:
1. Proclamation