July 1 marked the beginning of Disability Pride Month, an opportunity to celebrate disabilities as natural and integral parts of human diversity while simultaneously honoring the history and achievements of the disability community.
Did you know? Boston was the first city to hold Disability Pride Day to commemorate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects people from discrimination based on their disability status. The first celebration of Disability Pride Month began on the 25th anniversary of the ADA in 2015.
At BARCC, our mission is to empower and support all survivors—especially survivors who hold marginalized identities. We’re committed to honoring the aims of Disability Pride month all year long to best serve the survivors with disabilities in our community.
This month, we celebrate the tireless efforts of disability rights advocates throughout recent history. The Rehabilitation Act was passed in 1972, ensuring equal opportunity for employment and requiring equal access to public transportation and housing. The Education of All Handicapped Children Act, passed in 1975, guaranteed children with disabilities access to education in public schools. The combined efforts of those disability rights activists culminated in the passage of the ADA in 1990.
Even with these significant steps forward, the prejudicial treatment of the those within the disability community continues to impact people with disabilities and their experience with sexual violence.
According to a 2009-2024 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice:
- People with disabilities are three times more likely to endure rape of sexual assault.
- Children with intellectual disabilities are five times more likely to experience sexual abuse.
BARCC recognizes the added obstacles that survivors with disabilities face when trying to seek support and healing, which is why we are committed to making our services as accessible as possible. We provide a variety of formats for survivors, volunteers, employees, and anyone receiving our services including Braille/audio/large print and ASL interpreting. We also help connect survivors to additional resources that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of survivors within disability communities. Further, BARCC’s clinical, legal, and accessibility staff has worked to build survivor-centered adaptations for survivors with legal guardians.
Last, BARCC is a proud member of the Movement for Access, Safety, and Survivors Collaboration, or the MASS Collaboration. This transformative partnership between BARCC, the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the MBTA Transit Police, and the Cambridge Police has redefined the way BARCC supports the needs of survivors with disabilities.
For example, the MASS Collaboration created supervisory guidelines for how executive leadership, human resources, and supervisors within organizations can foster a disability-inclusive and trauma-informed work environment. The MASS Collaboration is also responsible for running a series of MBTA ad campaigns against sexual harassment, and creating guidance to increase support survivor interactions with paratransit, police, and personal care attendants (PCAs). We are also applying lessons learned in the MASS Collaboration in an additional, prevention-focused partnership with BCIL to create safer spaces for youth with disabilities.
This July, as we celebrate Disability Pride, BARCC will also be using this time to reflect on how to best support survivors with disabilities. We are constantly working towards making our services more accessible and if you have any feedback on how we can work towards that goal, we encourage you to contact us with your comments. BARCC stands firm with the disability community, this month and every month, in our mission to end sexual violence for all and facilitate healing for every survivor.
