Disability Pride is not about assimilation or inclusion into a violent supremacist system; it’s about rebellion and demanding justice in the face of it.

It’s a rejection of pity, pathologization, ableism, eugenics, and the demand to be “productive” under capitalism. It’s resistance to a society that treats basic access like a luxury and survival like a personal responsibility. Pride doesn’t mean being celebrated by the same systems that neglect, cage, exploit, and kill us—it means knowing our worth beyond what this world allows and organizing for something better for all of us. Because all of us are, can be, and will be part of the disabled community one day. Fighting for disability justice and equity is deeply connected to, and transformative for, every marginalized group across the world, not just humans. Everyone.

This movement isn’t about being inspirational for able-bodied people, it’s about building power and demanding rights. Disability Pride is not a branding tool. It’s what we build in the margins, in our beds, and in the streets. It’s a demand. It’s legacy. And it’s a refusal to accept anything less than full liberation, for ourselves and everyone left behind by the system.

Our fight for disability rights and why we’re not done yet | Judith Heumann