Welcome to the LibGuide for Disability Pride Month! During the month of July, we invite all students to explore resources related to disability history, culture, and justice and to celebrate the uniqueness of our community. The content included in this guide includes media created by disabled authors and artists, as well as media that features disabled characters and/or performers. Use the resources in this guide to join active social, artistic, and academic discourse about disability and to learn more about individuals and organizations in the film and music industries that are working to promote disability representation.
On July 26th, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. This historic event marked a significant victory for the disability rights movement, which gained significant momentum in the ‘70s and ‘80s. During this period, activists employed strategies from recent civil rights movements to encourage lawmakers to implement and preserve regulations that clarified the definition of “non-discrimination” as it applied to disabled individuals in Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. While defending Section 504 in Supreme Court cases, the disability community was also hard at work educating the public about the necessity of broader civil rights protections for disabled people. By the time drafts of the ADA were presented to Congress, thousands of disabled people had been activated to testify in hearings, send letters, and make phone calls to advocate for the bill’s eventual passage.
Protesters in D.C. participate in The Wheels of Justice March to the U.S. Capitol on March 12th, 1990. (Toronto Libraries via disabilityrightsflorida.org)
Activists of all ages, including disabled children and their families, crawled up the steps of the Capitol following the March. (Toronto Libraries via disabilityrightsflorida.org)
While passage of the ADA stalled, activists occupied congressional offices in the days following the March. (Toronto Libraries via disabilityrightsflorida.org)
The first official Disability Pride Month was celebrated in 2015, in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the passage of the ADA. As of 2025, the ADA has been protecting the rights of disabled Americans for 35 years. Learn more about the history of the ADA and how to celebrate its 35th anniversary below:
https://dredf.org/the-history-of-the-americans-with-disabilities-act/