Dedicated Red Cross Volunteer and our amazing patient, Tom Oliver is celebrating Disability Pride Month with us!
During July, we are to celebrate people with disabilities and chronic illness and their many contributions to the world. It’s a wonderful time to learn about and promote the achievements of those with disabilities, both by looking back on the past of the disability rights movement and learning about notable disabled people throughout history. During Disability Pride Month, we can celebrate the enormous diversity of the disabled community in the present and reflect on how we can all best support disabled people in the future.
Although it’s only recently become well known, the disabled community and allies have been organizing events for disability pride since the 1990s! The first Disability Pride Day was celebrated in Boston, all the way back in July 1990. The month of July was chosen because it was during this month that then-President George H. W. Bush signed the American Disabilities Act into law in 1990.
This was a landmark piece of legislation that prohibits discrimination based on disability in the USA. It was a huge achievement for the many activists who pushed for it, so July became a hugely important month for the disabled community in America. Over time, more and more cities, then countries, began holding their own disability pride celebrations every July.
In 2015, to celebrate 25 years since the ADA was signed, July was officially recognized as Disability Pride Month, and it’s gone from strength to strength ever since!
Tom has been a below-knee amputee since he was a child. It is our honor to serve Tom with his limb loss needs and celebrate all he has overcome!
One of Tom’s greatest achievements as a person with a disability is that he is a very busy Red Cross volunteer alongside his wife, Karen. In fact, he just returned from doing disaster relief in Guam!
Happy Disabilities Pride Month, Tom! We are so proud of him!
#stayinaction
(*Tom is pictured with his wife, Karen.)
