What does the Disability Pride flag represent?

Tori_Scope

Disability Pride Month takes place throughout July. It's not something that always gets a lot of attention, so I thought we could start off by talking about the Disability Pride flag

The Flag

This is the Disability Pride flag:

It was originally designed by Ann Magill in 2019, but has since been updated. The design used to feature the coloured stripes in a zig-zag pattern, but Ann changed this in 2021 due to concerns over a potential risk posed to those who live with epilepsy or migraines. 

You can read about this on Ann's website.

What does it represent?

As The Valuable 500 explain:

The Black Field: this field is to represent the disabled people who have lost their lives due not only to their illness, but also to negligence, suicide, and eugenics.

The Colours: each colour on this flag represents a different aspect of disability or impairment.

• Red: physical disabilities
• Yellow: cognitive and intellectual disabilities
• White: invisible and undiagnosed disabilities
• Blue: mental illness
• Green: sensory perception disabilities

The former zig-zag design also represented the ways in which disabled people navigate an ableist society, overcoming barriers in creative ways.

Over to you...

Had you heard about or seen the Disability Pride flag before reading this post?

Do you like the flag? 

What do you think about the flag's meaning?

What does 'disability pride' mean to you?

CrimsonKite

I'm only familiar with the disability flag, designed by Eros Recio. I prefer the design of this one to the disability pride flag in this post, but I prefer the symbolism in the pride one.  

Alex_Scope

I've never seen the flag by Eros Recio that you've shared @CrimsonKite do you know much about what the design and colours mean?

Biblioklept

Tori_Scope said:

The former zig-zag design also represented the ways in which disabled people navigate an ableist society, overcoming barriers in creative ways.

Why did they change from the zigzag design mentioned here?

Alex_Scope

This is the reason @Biblioklept:

 The design used to feature the coloured stripes in a zig-zag pattern, but Ann changed this in 2021 due to concerns over a potential risk posed to those who live with epilepsy or migraines. 

Biblioklept

Oh I missed that bit how embarrassing!! Thank you @Alex_Scope

Alex_Scope

That's quite alright @Biblioklept, I often find it's easy to miss things if you're reading quickly for example

Jo_2022

Wow @Tori_Scope what a fantastic idea of having a pride flag for disabilities. Thank you for sharing this! 👏🏻