4 Invisible Women Of The Disability Rights Movement We Should All Know

Human rights must include disability rights, and disability rights must include racial and women’s rights.

According to the CDC, “Over one in four adults in the United States lives with a disability.” That means disability intersects with race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion.

The Disability Rights Movement is a statement to the power of community action of women whose contributions helped define what equality looks like when we fight. However, the reality is that many women activists’ pursuits were not acknowledged as narratives historically focused on men as activists. 

Here are four Invisible Women Of The Disability Rights Movement We Should All Know.

“Some people say that what I did changed the world. But really, I simply refused to accept what I was told about who I could be. And I was willing to make a fuss about it”…” – Judy Heumann

People with disabilities have been fighting for decades for accessibility, accommodations, and rights. Although the disability rights movement really kick-started in the 1960s and 1970s, with the motivation from the civil rights and women’s rights movements. Activists, like Judy Heumann, were influenced by the power of collective action, peaceful protest, and civil disobedience to challenge the systemic barriers that excluded individuals with disabilities.

Let’s start with the early days with the originator. Heumann, a childhood Polio survivor who helped organize the historic 1977 Section 504 sit-ins in San Francisco. After her activism and help securing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Heumann later worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations under the Department of Education and pushed for global disability rights policy.

Founder of the Disability Visibility Project, writer, and activist Alice Wong was considered a “luminary of the disability justice movement”. Wong, who struggled with muscular dystrophy from birth, was known for telling her story and sharing others’ as her way of fighting for justice. In one of her books, she talks about the discrimination and bullying she faced growing up, which sparked her commitment to destruct ableism. Wong wanted to see a world where people with disabilities, especially people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants, could live freely and have full autonomy over their lives and decisions.

Women already have to endure and carry so much, adding in the weight of not being seen in a fight for rights that they inspired adds to the pain they endure. Although some of the founders of the Disability Rights movement have passed on, there are others still carrying the torch in the modern movement, such as Imani Barbarin.

Survivor of Cerebral Palsy, Imani is known for advocating for the representation, inclusion, and empowerment of people with disabilities at the intersections of race and women’s rights both in the United States and globally. Known as crutches and_spice on social media, the communications professional, public speaker, writer, and blogger is known for creating engaging content catered to millennials that explores disability culture as well as society and business’s perceptions of people with disabilities from the perspective of a black woman with a disability. 

Although Black women are underrepresented in leadership, there are activists behind the scenes working, such as Vilissa Thompson. Known for making “Good Trouble,” the social worker and founder of Ramp Your Voice! is known for speaking up for Black women with disabilities’ experiences via the intersectionality of gender rights and disability rights through policy work and media. Ramp Your Voice! is an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy and strengthening empowerment among people with disabilities.

The fight for rights, whether Civil, Racial, Women’s, or Disabled, is never-ending, but with women and the power to unite, they will continue to make “Good Trouble”.