Hello and welcome back to my monthly blog posts as your EDI Student Librarian! This month’s topic is Disability Pride Month. July is designated as Disability Pride Month because the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in July 1990 in the United States. In this post, I’m going to dive into the history of disability advocacy in British Columbia and at UBC, leading up to movements and efforts happening in our local context today.
As always, this is a short blog post about a broad issue. As I am only able to highlight portions of the long history of disability rights advocacy, I hope this post will serve as a jumping off point for your own further research. Happy disability pride!
The Disability Pride Flag
Disability rights movements in North America began in the latter half of the 20th century. These decades brought societal shifts in thought around disability. More people began to believe that disabled people deserve to live full, meaningful lives, sparking new movements for change.
An important movement at this time was the deinstitutionalization movement. In the 1950s, advocates began working to close the residential institutions where disabled people were sent to live. These institutions isolated disabled people from public life and were often abusive. Instead, disability advocates wanted support services to be available throughout communities, so that disabled people can live with family or other caretakers.
Here in Vancouver, a woman named Bea Purdy led the deinstitutionalization movement. Her son, Bobby, was born with Down Syndrome in 1938. Bea refused to send Bobby to Woodlands School, an institution in New Westminster, instead wanting him placed in a special education classroom in public school. However, at this time, the Vancouver School Board did not admit students who did not meet their definition of “educable.” Institutionalization was the only option available.
In January 1953, Bea gathered twelve other parents of developmentally disabled children. Together they formed an organization now known as the Developmental Disabilities Association. They opened their own school for developmentally disabled children, and in 1956, their advocacy led to the amendment of the Public Schools Act to provide funding for the education of developmentally disabled students.
The Developmental Disabilities Association remains active today. You can learn more about Bea and Bobby Purdy, the DDA’s founding, and their current work here. They provide services, supports, and advocacy for developmentally disabled people in the Vancouver and Richmond area.
In the decades following the 1950s, disability advocacy continued progressing. In 1977, the BC Coalition of the Disabled was formed by disabled people, operating under the slogan “Nothing About Us Without Us.” This organization, now known as Disability Alliance BC, has achieved an extensive list of advocacy successes around transportation, health, income security, and law reform. You can read about their history of creating systemic change here.
In 1975, the United Nations issued the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, and in 1982, disability was added as a protected class under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, disabled people have more legal protections than ever before, which leaves us with the question: what is still to be done?
Disability advocacy is continuing in Vancouver and at UBC today. In this post, I will highlight the work of Dr. Jennifer Gagnon, who is leading advocacy for workplace accessibility at UBC.
Dr. Gagnon’s work exists within a cluster of developments at UBC in the past five years. In 2019, the Disability Accommodation Policy (LR7) was issued at UBC, which serves as the current foundation for the Centre for Accessibility. In 2020, the Disability Affinity Group (DAG) was formed at UBC, a community-building and advocacy group for disabled people at UBC. Dr. Gagnon serves as the president of DAG alongside executive team members Dr. Dana Solomon, Corin Parsons, and Kathryn Douglass-Campbell.
After the adaption of the Disability Accommodation Policy, Dr. Gagnon and DAG members identified a continuing accessibility need at UBC. The policy and support in place for disabled employees needed to be improved. Their advocacy led to the establishment of the Centre for Workplace Accessibility in 2022, which provides UBC employees with information about workplace accommodations, funding to make accessibility changes, projects and workshops to promote disability inclusion, and more.
Disability advocacy at UBC is still ongoing. Right now, DAG is seeking to form a disability task force at UBC and to bring the lens of disabled employees to the forefront of existing policy.
July is a month to remember the disabled people who came before us— their struggles, their victories, and the meaningfulness of their lives. It is also a time to examine the current opportunities for change in our communities. I hope this look through history has inspired you to learn more about disability advocacy near you, both right now and throughout the past.
Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave a comment!
Web Resources Consulted:
Disability Rights Movement in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia
DDA’s History – Developmental Disabilities Association
UBC to open a new Centre for Workplace Accessibility to support disabled staff and faculty
Scholarly Resources:
Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (2018). Care work: Dreaming disability justice (1st ed.). Arsenal Pulp Press. [Available at UBC Libraries]
Malhotra, R. & Isitt, B. (2017). Disabling barriers: Social movements, disability history, and the law. UBC Press. [Available at UBC Libraries]
UBC Researchers:
Dr Jennifer Gagnon
Dr. Dana Solomon
Corin Parsons
Kathryn Douglass-Campbell