DDRC Employment Services

Join Colorado APSE in celebrating Disability Pride month! You can add your thoughts and be featured in the celebration!

To celebrate Disability Pride Month, we are asking the COAPSE community, "What does Disability Pride mean to you?"

Share what disability pride means to you for a chance to be featured in our social media campaign! Whether it’s a single word, a favorite quote, or a short story about your journey, your voice matters. Submit your response here: https://forms.gle/QeJY153tN9ipR7G77

And to launch our campaign, here are some thoughts from S.S.

"For me, Disability Pride Month is rooted in dignity.

The word “pride” can be complicated. For some, pride represents empowerment, identity, community, and the progress made by generations of advocates who fought to be included. That deserves to be honored. At the same time, not every person experiences their disability as something to celebrate. Some disabilities bring profound pain, loss, isolation, or daily challenges. Recognizing those realities does not diminish disability pride; it deepens our understanding of it.

True inclusion means making room for every story: the person who embraces their disability as part of their identity, the person who struggles with their disability, and the person whose experience changes over time.

This is especially important when we talk about serious mental illness. Too often, those living with the most disabling conditions are left out of conversations about disability rights and belonging. Along with successes, we need to bring awareness to our failures and shortcomings. Colorado is 48th in the treatment for adults with a Serious Mental Illness despite spending more on Mental Health and Mental Illness per capita than the average state. It is due largely to the bulk of this budget going towards forensic care - the criminalization of SMI. There are no longer medium to long term residential care available to individuals not in the criminal justice system.

To me, Disability Pride Month is a reminder that every person deserves dignity, support, opportunity, and a voice not because of how they define their disability, but because of their humanity."

-S.S.