Don’t forget to include disabled people in your activism.
When you talk about the wage gap between men and women and people of different races, remember that disabled people in the US can legally be paid as little as 22 cents an hour as opposed to the 7.25 dollars an hour that non-disabled people can expect to be paid.
When you talk about sexual assault, remember that at least 83% of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted in their life time as opposed to 25% of women without disabilities.
When you talk about police brutality, remember that up to 50% of the people who are being killed by the police in the US are disabled.
When you talk about how cut downs on welfare affect people, remember that just in the UK, 2,380 disabled people died between 2011 and 2014 shortly after being declared able to work.
When you talk about abuse, remember that the abuse rates for disabled people are higher than the abuse rates for the non-disabled population and that disabled people are especially vulnerable to abuse from parents, caregivers, relatives and partners throughout their life time because we often can’t live independently.
When you talk about reproductive rights issues and a women’s right not to have children, remember that disabled women still have to fight to be seen as capable parents and remember how at least a million disabled women were forcibly sterilized during the last century and that these sterilizations are still happening today.
When you talk about the horrors of conversion therapy, remember how ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis, the most widespread “therapy” for autistic children) was invented by the same person who invented conversion therapy after the same principles, and that the two “therapies” are thought to cause PTSD at similar rates.
When you talk about unemployment, remember that only 35% of working-age disabled people are employed, compared to an employment rate of 78% in the rest of the population.
When you talk about homelessness, remember that at least 40% of the homeless people in the US are disabled.
When you talk about education, remember that only 31% of disabled people go to college as opposed to 66% of the general population.
When you talk about poverty, remember that while the non-disabled population in the US have a poverty rate of 12%, disabled people in the US have a poverty rate of 29%
Don’t forget to include disabled people in your activism.