Intersectionality Unleashed: Amplifying Diverse Voices – Blog #1
Women + Disability + Advocacy
Image Description: Dorothea L. Dix (1802-1887) Dorothea is wearing her hair up in a braided ponytail with a white collared shirt and black sweater. The image is in black and white. Dorothea is looking to the right side of her body and possesses a neutral facial expression.
Over the past 200 years advocacy for people with disabilities has pushed the envelope, changed culture, shifted language, and improved the circumstances of millions of people. Of course, the journey is far from complete.
Image Description: Judy Huemann (1947-2023) is wearing a blue shirt with floral embroidery, and in each hand, she is holding her books. The book on her left is red, and the book on her right is tan. Judy is smiling in her powerchair with vases in the background.
As with all social movements, the contributions and voices of women are often diminished or not heard at all. March is Women’s History Month, and we thought we would start early in advocacy history. We can look back to people like Dorothea Dix, who worked in the mid 19th century on improving the conditions for people with mental illness, then largely institutionalized. Her advocacy advanced understanding and treatment.
Fast forward to the heady days of the late 1960’s and early 70’s and Judy Heumann’s preeminence in the disability rights movement. Judy was an activist and advocate whose work spearheaded the historic Section 504 Sit-in of 1977 and who went on to impact a host of national legislation, including the Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Along the way, she just happened to be a founding member of the first independent living organization; Berkeley Center for Independent Living, launching the Independent Living movement (Spoiler alert: We, your Disability Network WML was the 4th in the country).
Image Description: Stella Young (1982-2014) Stella has red hair and is wearing all black clothing while sitting in her powerchair. She is wearing red shoes with white polka dots and is holding her hands together leaning over her chair to her left. She is smiling and looking toward the camera. The background is grey.
Going global, Australian Stella Young served as editor of Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s online magazine, “Ramp Up.” Notably, in 2012, a “Ramp Up” editorial deconstructed what Young termed as “inspiration p*rn”, broadcasting the idea that people with disabilities can do things everyday “despite” their disability, which in turn serves to highlight ablest attitudes and behaviors.
Image Description: Alice Wong is wearing a blue shirt and is in her power chair holding her book in her right hand. Alice has black hair, freckles, and red lipstick smiling with a concrete building in the background.
Contemporary advocates include Alice Wong, a disabled activist, community influencer, writer, and editor. Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project, a virtual community sharing disabled voices, media, and culture. In 2017, the Disability Visibility Project launched a podcast with Wong as the writer and co-audio producer.
Image Description: Hermon and Heroda are identical twins with brown skin and hair. They are both wearing identical outfits, pink ruffled floral shirts with pink rose headbands. There is a statue and trees in the background, both individuals are smiling and looking at the camera.
Our final spotlight is on Hermon and Heroda Berhane, identical twins who created a blog titled “Being Her”. This blog encapsulates the message that being yourself is the most powerful form of beauty. Together, these sisters don’t outwardly identify that their deafness is a disability because they don’t see it as one. Like some in the disability community, the Berhane sisters see their deafness as an advantage to human experience. They note that because of their disability, their experience of life is very different. Their other senses – taste, touch, smell, and vision – give them a different means to appreciate the world around them.
Together these women were or are advocates, activists, writers, speakers, and influencers. They got things done, they made or are making history right now, and they have advanced the world for all of us.
For more on these individuals, their books, biographies, and where to find them, here are some places to start:
List of resources & links
https://judithheumann.com/project/about/
Judith Heumann | National Women’s History Museum (womenshistory.org)
Judith Heumann | Biography, Disability Rights Movement, Activism, & Facts | Britannica
https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/about/
Alice Wong | National Women’s History Museum (womenshistory.org)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470530/
Biography: Dorothea Dix (womenshistory.org)
Stella Young – Wikipedia
Remembering Stella Young
Stella Young: I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much | TED Talk
About – Being Her by Hermon and Heroda (beinghermonheroda.com)
Meet Hermon and Heroda Of ‘Being Her’, Deaf Twins Who Are Continuing To Break Barriers | British Vogue