July is Disability Pride Month and the 34th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As part of its recognition, the Disability Network Southwest Michigan recently launched a campaign to change attitudes about the word "disabled."
Miranda Grunwell is a community educator at the Disability Network. She is proudly disabled. Grunwell said ‘disabled’ shouldn’t be thought of as a four-letter word. She said it is important for people in the disabled community and everyone else start using it more.
Grunwell added that it's especially valuable for young people to get comfortable using the word, because it empowers them to ask for the accommodations they will need at work and when they are out and about in the community.
Those those accommodations are the result of years of hard work and struggle from the earliest disability rights activists, Grunwell said.
Yvonne Fleener is president and CEO of the Disability Network of Southwest Michigan. She says it used to be taboo to use the word, but this campaign wants to change that attitude.
Fleener said that taking control of the label is a way for disabled people to be seen.
