In 2020, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; landmark civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination based on disability) celebrated its 30th anniversary amidst a global pandemic. As people adjusted to life in a pandemic, we (maybe a bit ironically considering the historic lack of disability justicevisibility) relied on many of the lessons and foundation-laying of the disability justice movement. For example, many non-disabled people have had to grow a new level of bodily awareness, whether because we were following social distancing protocols, monitoring our symptoms, or balancing risk of contagion against basic needs like going to the grocery store or visiting a doctor. Beyond the virus, non-disabled people have had to consider how our bodies are transposed into the virtual work and learn-from-home worlds. And also how our bodies may no longer be able to go to work or school at all.
But for those in the disabled community, existing in an inhospitable (systemically violent) environment under fraught circumstances has been a lived reality and disability justice a constant thread. Since the conception of some cultural bodily ideal and, thus, the creation of the “bad body,” the disabled community has used creativity, innovation, and resilience to build accessible worlds affirming all bodies and minds in any circumstance.
Starting in Fall 2021, Critical Social Justice (CSJ) will engage the UMBC community in a year-long conversation* on “Disability Justice + Access Matters.” In doing so, we hope to build on the disability justice movement’s work to fight for the value and liberation of all bodies–especially in the hopes of building radically accessible futures.
Inspired by the work queer, disabled people of color activist group, Sins Invalid, we affirm their vision of disability justice:
- All bodies are considered unique and essential.
- All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met.
- Each and every person is powerful, not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them.
- All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them. (Sins Invalid, 2020; original article accessible here.)
As we continue to struggle through this pandemic and journey towards “back to normal,” our hope is that this year’s CSJ will encourage us to pause before going back to the ways things were pre-COVID. In this pause, you can join us in reflecting on what embodiment has felt like during this pandemic. We can begin imagining a world where all people are considered strong and valuable not in spite of their complexities but because of those complexities. We can explore a history of activism and political organizing that has fought against the subjugation of disabled peoples and for the right to survive and thrive. And, in this pause, we can collaborate on ways to cultivate radically accessible and affirming spaces. This year, CSJ: Disability Justice + Access Matters invites our campus community to learn from a perspective of disability justice so that we can continue to make space for everybody and every body now and in the future.
For more information about upcoming events or to inquire about collaboration, please email the Women’s Center at womenscenter@umbc.edu.
We are currently reaching out to UMBC departments and organizations who may be interested in acting as co-sponsors (financial and otherwise!). If you represent an office interested in co-sponsoring CSJ: Disability Justice + Access Matters, please be in touch with the Women’s Center via the email above.
To get updates regarding our schedule of events and other programs, please subscribe to this WordPress and, if you have access to myUMBC, follow the Women’s Center on myUMBC.
*In previous iterations of CSJ, we have delivered programming through a week jam-packed with activities, speakers, and campaigns each and everyday. This year, we plan to spread the programs out through the school year with monthly ways to engage in Disability Justice + Access Matters both virtually and in-person.