Disability Pride Week 2023

"Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot—if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war." (Page 4 of cover)

"A probing, witty, and deeply insightful history of blindness—in Western culture and literature, and in the author's own experience - that ranges from Homer to Milton to Braille to Stevie Wonder. The author begins her wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how 'blindness' has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the reality of blindness. Altogether, she gives readers a revelation of the centrality of blindness and vision to humanity's understanding of itself and the world." (Adapted from publisher's description)

"Mara Tagarelli is, professionally, the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation; personally, she is a committed martial artist. But her life has turned inside out like a sock. She can't rely on family, her body is letting her down, and friends and colleagues are turning away—they treat her like a victim. She needs to break that narrative: build her own community, learn new strengths, and fight. Mara makes a decision and acts, but her actions unleash monsters aimed squarely at the heart of her new community. This is fiction from the front lines, incandescent and urgent, a narrative juggernaut that rips through sentiment to expose the savagery of America's treatment of the disabled and chronically ill. But So Lucky also blazes with hope and a ferocious love of self, of the life that becomes possible when we stop believing lies." (Adapted UC Library Description)

"'The Accessible Stall' is a disability podcast hosted by Kyle Khachadurian and Emily Ladau that keeps it real about issues within the disability community. Because we each have different disabilities and mobility levels, we approach everything we talk about with two unique viewpoints, offering our listeners a fresh insight into how differences in disability can color your experiences and perspectives. And we never shy away from offering our honest opinion. Even if they go against the grain of the disability community at large, we always speak our minds." (Website description)

"Gaelynn Lea, the winner of NPR's second annual Tiny Desk Contest, makes music like nobody else. Her sounds are steeped in the deep melodies of great Irish fiddle tunes, but her performance and singing style aren't traditional. More than 6,000 artists submitted videos in which they performed an original song behind a desk of their choosing with the hope of winning a chance to play a Tiny Desk concert at NPR. Gaelynn Lea was the overwhelming favorite of our six judges.” (YouTube description)

"Paralympic track star Scout Bassett found her purpose and passion when she became a runner. She talked about the need for more opportunities for people with disabilities to try sports and discover their strengths at a young age." (YouTube description)

"The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Project was launched in 1996 to capture the history of a remarkable movement by people with disabilities to win legally defined civil rights and control over their own lives. Since then, more than 100 oral histories with leaders, participants, and observers of the movement in the 1960s and 1970s have preserved the living memory of the movement. A rich collection of personal papers and the records of key disability organizations join the oral histories in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, comprising an in-depth research resource for the study of a contemporary social movement which has changed the social, cultural, and legal landscape of the nation." (Website description)

"Promoting accessibility, community, allyship, and intersectionality" (Instagram description)

Founded by Lydia X.Z. Brown, "The Autistic People of Color Fund provides direct financial support to autistic people of color through individual microgrants between $100 to $500. We support autistic youth and adults of color." (Information on https://autismandrace.com/)

"UCLA All Brains aims to make UCLA a more inclusive campus for neurodivergent individuals including but not limited to Autistic and ADHD students." (Instagram description)

"In March 2021, the Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) awarded the MetaMap team a grant for the creation of a dataset containing every accessible entrance and ramp on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. Our mission was to use that funding to turn UCLA's existing static accessibility map into a robust and interactive dataset that would improve accessibility for everyone on campus." (Website description)

"The UCLA Adaptive Recreation Program provides opportunities for individuals with and without disabilities to participate in adaptive sports & recreation activities." (Website description)

"The Los Angeles Spoonie Collective is composed of disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill LGBTQIA+ community members within the Los Angeles area (Tongva land). We offer virtual and in-person workshops and panel discussions on the intersections of race, gender, and disability, disability justice, feminist theory, and more." (Description from spooniecollective.org)