Disability Rights Arkansas

July is Disability Pride Month — a time to celebrate disability as a natural and valuable part of the human experience, honor the strength and diversity of the disability community, and continue the fight for a more accessible and inclusive world.

Disability Pride Month began in 1990 alongside the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the landmark civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, education, transportation, public accommodations, and many other areas of daily life. Each year, we also celebrate the ADA's anniversary on July 26, recognizing the advocates whose persistence and determination made this historic legislation possible.

Disability Pride isn't about pretending disability is easy or ignoring the barriers that still exist. It's about rejecting shame and stigma. It's about recognizing that disability is a community worthy of respect. It's about affirming that people with disabilities do not need to change to belong — our communities should be designed so everyone can participate.

More than three decades after the ADA became law, progress continues, but so does the work. Accessibility doesn't happen by accident — it happens because people advocate for it.

This July, we celebrate every person with a disability, every advocate who has fought for change, and every step toward a future where disability rights are recognized as human rights.

Happy Disability Pride Month!

A little Maya Angelou wisdom for your Sunday reset. Make someone feel special this week!

Did you know that 1 in 5 Arkansans lives with a disability? That’s not a small group — it’s our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, friends, and family. It's the only minority group that anyone could join at any moment. Disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it touches every community across our state.

When we talk about accessibility, inclusion, and rights, we’re not talking about “someone else.” We’re talking about all of us. Because disability rights are human rights.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Those words open the Declaration of Independence. Nearly 250 years ago, our Founding Fathers affirmed a simple but powerful truth: every person is created equal and possesses rights that cannot be taken away by any government.

In a time when executive orders, agency guidance, cabinet announcements, and legal memos affecting individuals with disabilities seem to dominate the headlines, it can be easy to feel discouraged or overwhelmed.

But remember this: agencies do not create laws — Congress does. Our nation's founding documents and civil rights laws were designed to protect the rights of the people from government overreach, not the other way around. The principles of equality, dignity, and liberty remain as important today as they were at our nation's founding.

Most importantly, disability rights advocates and Protection and Advocacy organizations across the country are still showing up every day — fighting to ensure those rights are protected.

Stay informed. Stay engaged. And never forget that your rights matter.