Disability Pride Message
Delivered at the Santa Clara County Disability Pride Flag Raising on July 23, 2026
Supervisor Betty Duong and the County of Santa Clara hosted the first ever Disability Pride Flag Raising on July 23, 2026, at James P. McEntee Plaza in San José. All Things Disability Equity’s Founder, Michele Mashburn, was asked to speak and deliver a call to action for the event. The text of her speech and the audio recording are below.
A reel from Supervisor Duong’s office, linked from Instagram, is embedded below as well.
Thank you, Supervisor Duong, for creating this space today. And thank you to the Division of Equity and Social Justice, and Viviana Barnwell, for your work envisioning this event.
This Disability Pride comes at a time when our community is under sustained attack, often in ways most people never see. Too often, our systems still treat disabled people as objects of charity or vulnerability instead of recognizing us as fully human, with the same rights and dignity as everyone else.
Disability Pride isn’t about pretending those threats away. It’s about the work we’ve always done, work that’s rarely acknowledged or seen.
I challenge everyone here to understand a fundamental premise: disability is not a problem to solve. Societal barriers are. For too long, we’ve accepted a world that sees disability as a tragedy, a burden, or a limitation. Disability is a natural part of human diversity. The problem has never been disability itself: it’s a society built without us in mind.
Access needs must be recognized as human needs. Inclusion must be intentional. Disability is an identity, not a deficit. Barriers must be eliminated, not accommodated around.
This is an achievable reality when we commit to systemic change, and it happens through leadership of and by disabled people. People with the most direct experience have the most insight into what works best. Give us the power and opportunity to make these changes.
Our call to action includes recognizing and unlearning ableism, questioning compliance with existing norms and standards, and including disabled people in every decision in every way. Discover where structural ableism holds power and help us dismantle it. When you remove those barriers, you create systems that work better for all of us.
It is time to stop measuring success by the barriers we’ve managed to navigate and start recognizing the creativity and resilience it took to navigate them. It is time for people with disabilities to claim our rightful place at every table, in every room, in every decision that shapes the world.
It is time for disability pride, and time for this world to be built better for all of us.
Our disabilities didn’t stop us. We adapted, innovated, and found new ways to live, lead, and build community. That reality shaped who we are, not despite disability, but alongside it. It made us advocates, leaders, and a community that isn’t going anywhere.
Happy Disability Pride.