Happy International Women’s Day!
May your mental load be reduced, manteruptions be kept to a minimum and your voices be heard.
This year’s themes are “No Woman Left Behind” and “Press For Progress“. Disabled women are often forgotten in discussions about diversity and violence and media and women in general. So I’m going to let you know of a few who you need to follow.
Alice Wong
Alice runs the Disability Visibility Project – collating and sharing disability-led news and facilitating online communities and chats. Alice also co-founded #CripTheVote just before the last US election – a Twitter conversation about how American politics impacts on disabled people. #CripTheVote has continued since Trump’s election.
Find her on Twitter @sfdirewolf / @disvisibility, and leading the Disability Visibility Project Facebook group.
Erin Clark
I love Erin’s thoughts on disability representation. This introduction she wrote to a piece on The Shape of Water was excellent.
I also love her fashion and pole dancing photos. She is so proud and strong.
She writes at How to be a Sex Icon
Find Erin on Facebook and Instagram.
Annika Victoria
Annika – or @LittlePineNeedle as she’s known to her 73,000 Instagram followers is doing amazing things to highlight invisible disability.
She posts cute fashion photos as well as DIY fashion videos for her 600,000 strong community on YouTube.
I have loved seeing how Annika has become more confident in talking about and capturing life with a disability.
Follow her on Instagram.
Jane Rosengrave
I first came to know about Jane Rosengrave through Ginger Gorman’s article and TV story about her Jane is a survivor of domestic and institutional abuse. She is such a brave, articulate woman. (Note that the articles I’ve linked to detail physical and sexual violence.)
In recent years, Jane Rosengrave won a Human Rights Award and a public advocate award for her work advocating for disability rights.
Bek Lambert
Bek doesn’t speak of her disability often, but when she has done – often on my Facebook page – she’s been a strong voice calling for the increase of access and a stop to ableism. She’s given me excellent support.
Bek runs Freelance Jungle, a Facebook community for freelancers. She shares useful articles and tips, as well as words from her – motivating and connecting us to stay afloat in an often lonely industry. She’s speaking at a conference I’m at next week and I can’t wait to meet her.
Find Bek in the Freelance Jungle Facebook group.
Christina Ryan
Christina runs the Disability Leadership Institute – a professional hub for disabled leaders. It’s a national register of disability leaders – connecting us with mainstream organisations and each other.
Christina is a leader in the disability community – with a strong work history and desire to create connections and visibility.
View more info on the Disability Leadership Institute.
Find Christina on Twitter, and on Facebook.
Kochava Lilit
Kochava is a writer, spoken word performer, queerJew and activist.
They are non binary and identify as they/them.
Kochava is an incredibly talented young person – their writing is always thought provoking. They have performed with me at Quippings and my brain expands every time I hear their spoken word. I adore the imagery they creates and the rhythm of the words they put together.
Read their letter to allies on the Writers Victoria website. Find Kochava on Twitter.
Imani Barbarin
Imani describes herself as “like a macaron made of black girl magic, disabled pride and feminism”. She writes powerfully on topics including internalised and externalised ableism, disability pride, and love.
She created the Twitter Chat #DisTheOscars discussing disability representation and inclusion in The Oscars and film more widely.
Last week she wrote really great Twitter thread on workplace accessibility.
Find Imani on Twitter and Facebook. Read her blog.
Larissa Macfarlane
Larissa is a Melbourne based artist, creating amazing paste ups and printmaking. Larissa’s feature is handstands – using the physical act of doing a handstand, and creating art from them as a way of healing from a brain injury.
She was a Footscray Community Arts Centre emerging cultural leader in 2016, and last year had a month-long residency and exhibition there.
Larissa showed incredible resilience when her pride mural was removed by council contractors on the International Day of People with Disability weekend last year.
Read her blog. Follow her on Twitter.
A big thanks to these people for the work they do.
Can’t get enough disabled women? I made a list of 10 disabled women writers who shone in 2017.
Read my Press for Progress speech.
Did this post help you or make you think? Will you use it in your workplace or classroom? Please consider buying me a drink. Thanks! And sign up to my newsletter for more info about my upcoming book.
Kudos to you, Carly, for making sure no part of our world is forgotten in the reminder to take ownership of our power as women.
I’m a friend of Erin Clark…that young woman who determinedly shows us – especially the abled population – that we need to assess how we think, see and feel about our sisters (and brothers) who live with extra challenges.
Years ago, on Salt Spring Island in Canada, I felt the energy of a vibrant soul before I found its beaming beauty. I was taking photos of our lively Saturday market so turned the lens on her. Off she wheeled before I could talk to her. I posted one of the photos on Face Book. She tracked me down and we’ve been connected ever since.
I love her zest for life, her indefatigable determination, her intelligence and her undeterred enthusiasm for the next adventure.
She has not adopted a representative role for those who are wheelchair bound, but she certainly grabs our under-educated, over-abled attention so that we are left taking a hefty look at our perceptions, blindness and in-sensitivities.
Brava to the other woman you’ve also featured. Keep on, blessed Souls. We need you because you’re changing the world!