Disability Pride Month: Pride Matters, But Let’s Be Honest — We’re Moving Backwards

Disability Pride Month is supposed to be a celebration. And it is — disabled people deserve joy, visibility, and community. But this year, I can’t pretend everything feels like progress. Because if you look at the systems disabled people rely on, it’s painfully clear: we’re not just stalled. We’re going backwards.

The reality: our rights and resources are shrinking, not expanding

Over the last few years, disabled people have watched essential supports get cut, restricted, or made harder to access. And it’s happening across the board:

• Healthcare access is getting tighter — shorter appointments, fewer specialists, more hoops to jump through, and more people being dismissed or denied care.

• Home care services are underfunded, understaffed, and increasingly inaccessible, leaving people without the support they need to live safely at home.

• Disability benefits are harder to qualify for, harder to maintain, and easier to lose — even when someone’s condition hasn’t improved.

• Accessible housing is disappearing as rents rise and landlords avoid making modifications.

• Public transportation is becoming less reliable, less funded, and less accessible.

• Medical equipment accessibility is still an afterthought — exam tables, weight scales, imaging machines that disabled bodies literally cannot use.

• Social safety nets are being chipped away, leaving disabled people with fewer options and more vulnerability.

These aren’t small setbacks. They’re structural rollbacks. And disabled people feel them every single day.

Pride Month feels different when you’re watching rights erode.

It’s hard to celebrate when:

• People are losing services they’ve relied on for years.

• Waitlists for care are months or years long.

• Disabled people are being pushed out of workplaces because accommodations are treated like burdens.

• Chronic illness is still dismissed as “stress” or “anxiety.”

• Disabled people are forced to fight harder for basic access than they did a decade ago.

We’re not imagining it. We’re not being dramatic. The supports that were supposed to help disabled people live safely and independently are shrinking.

This is what “backwards” looks like

Going backwards looks like:

• More disabled people becoming unhoused because accessible housing is nonexistent.

• More people skipping medical care because they can’t afford it or can’t physically access it.

• More caregivers burning out because they’re doing the work of a full care team alone.

• More disabled people being isolated because transportation and community spaces aren’t accessible.

• More people being denied disability benefits despite clear medical evidence.

This isn’t progress. It’s regression.

Pride Month is still powerful — but it’s also a warning

Disability Pride Month isn’t just about celebration. It’s about visibility, resistance, and truth‑telling. And the truth right now is uncomfortable: disabled people are losing ground.

We can hold pride and frustration at the same time.

We can celebrate disability culture while calling out the systems that are failing us.

We can honor our community while demanding better.

Disabled people deserve more than survival. We deserve stability, safety, autonomy, and dignity — and we deserve systems that move forward, not backward.