An important word you may have heard before during your time in the rare neuroimmune disorder community is advocacy. In the context of disability, advocacy is an action that ensures the right and well-being of people with disabilities, which in turn allows those people to live fulfilling lives with access to the same opportunities, as the RHA puts it. Advocacy is incredibly important—it is how and why we’ve made so many steps toward accessibility, and how and why we will be taking more steps toward inclusion and accessibility in the future.
Advocacy, however, is difficult. Although it can be as simple as reposting posts by disabled people and spreading the message, advocacy can also be volunteering at disability rights organizations, creating art, media, or writing that depicts disability in considerate ways, and attending disability civil rights events. Acts of advocacy like these are excellent ways to create cultural progress, to advance the fight for disability rights, and to keep disabled perspectives at the forefront.
In the following articles, different forms of advocacy are shared, including disability rights history, legislative advocacy, and things we can do to try to halt the active threat against Section 504, a key legislation for United States disability rights. I hope these articles can leave you inspired to do your own acts of advocacy—even the smallest thing to you may make all the difference to the world.
