Governor Wolf, Make Every October Disability Action Month!

Disability Pride Philadelphia Inc., PA Inclusive Higher Education Consortium and Disability Equality in Education support Disability Action Month for positive action in history, employment, pride and education! 

We want Governor Wolf to make October Disability Action Month permanently! The disability community is rich and vibrant, but the world outside doesn’t always see how important we are. This is our chance to bring up the important issues that matter most to the disability community while celebrating and honoring our identity, history and pride.

Many States like Washington and Florida already have a designated Disability Awareness Month or Disability History Month. It is Pennsylvania’s time to show the rest of country that we love and honor the disability community! We are taking those other states one step further with a call to action on 4 pillars of change: Pride, History, Education and Employment.

Pride Disability is not inability. Disability is an identity and a community. We deserve to feel proud and show our pride to the world! Disability Pride is about everyone celebrating differences, diversity and the significant contribution that disabled people make to their communities.

History Disability history is incredibly important, and highly under recognized. The 30th Anniversary of the ADA is in 2020. It is legendary civil rights legislation because the disability community organized and created a grassroots movement. We need to spread disability history, otherwise it will disappear. Now it's time to honor disability history in Pennsylvania.

Education Disability is left out of conversations on diversity and in everyday classroom lessons. Students with disabilities report high levels of social exclusion and bullying. Our goal is to change student perspective to see disability as a part of human diversity, an identity and a natural part of the human experience. We want all schools in Pennsylvania to adopt disability content in their curricula.

Employment Increase the rate of gainful employment for people with disabilities! The unemployment rate for people with a disability was 8.0% in 2018, more than twice the rate of those without a disability (3.7 %) (US Dept. of Labor). Governor Wolf has already started a disability employment initiative and we want to encourage and build on his work and other employment initiatives across Pennsylvania.

Show Governor Wolf that you support Disability Action Month and sign the petition!