5 Disability Advocates You Should Know
This March, SCG celebrates both Women’s History Month and Disability Awareness Month. In an effort to elevate the work of women fighting for a more accessible and inclusive world, we are proud to highlight five disability activists you should know. We encourage you to visit their websites and consider partnering with them to advance your internal efforts. We also urge you to remember that accessibility and inclusion must go beyond this month and must become an integral part of your equity journey.
Haben Girma — Disability Rights Lawyer, Author, Speaker
Haben Girma is the first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. As a disability rights activist, she has received many accolades, including the White House Champion of Change, the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. SCG had the honor of hosting Haben as a Keynote Speaker for our 2019 Annual Conference, Foresight Philanthropy, where she shared her personal story and encouraged our network to take the first step and remove the barriers preventing our community from being accessible. She emphasized that inclusion is a choice we make every day, and that accessibility is an opportunity for innovation. As she reinforced during an interview, “It’s people that create justice. Communities create justice. All of us face the choice to accept unfairness or advocate for justice.” You can learn more about Haben on her website and read her memoir, “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.”
Mia Mingus — Writer, Educator, and Trainer
Mia Mingus is a queer physically disabled Korean activist who has advanced transformative justice and disability justice work for almost two decades. She is the founder and current leader of SOIL: A Transformative Justice Project, which “builds the soil for transformative justice to grow and thrive” through political education, training, and strategic partnerships. Mia also contributed to the development of the disability justice framework, and the writings on her blog, Leaving Evidence, have become a global resource for anyone interested in disability justice and its place in movement work. Mia’s state mission is to create “...community, interdependence, and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love.”
Emily Landau — Activist, Writer, Storyteller, and Digital Communications Consultant
Emily Landau is the author of “Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally,” which provides guidance on becoming a better ally to disabled folks and actions to make the world more accessible. She is also the co-host of The Accessible Stall Podcast, which discusses timely subjects happening within the disability community. She currently works as the Digital Content and Community Manager for the Disability & Philanthropy Forum and provides communications and digital strategy consulting. Emily holds the belief that “...by sharing our stories and making the disability experience accessible to the world that we will reach a world that is accessible to the disability community.”
Alice Wong — Activist, Writer, Editor, Media Maker, and Consultant
Alice Wong is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, which seeks to create and amplify disability media and culture. Alice has been an activist within the disabled community for over a decade and was appointed to the National Council on Disability by President Barack Obama and has received the Beacon Award, the Disability Service Award, and the 2016 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, an award for emerging leaders with disabilities. Alice’s writings and work have been circulated widely in outlets such as the New York Times, Buzzfeed, CNN, and many others. She has also edited and published several titles, including Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, #ADA30InColor, a series of essays by disabled people of color, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, and Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today. Alice’s memoir, “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life,” will be available later this year.
Candace Cable — Author, Speaker, Former Athlete
Candance Cable is a nine-time Paralympian and 12-time Paralympic medalist who competed in wheelchair racing and alpine and nordic ski racing. Throughout her career, she has advocated for disabled people in sports. Since her retirement in 2006, Candance has become a more prominent disability activist and shared her personal story broadly. She has also co-founded Social Cohesion Resources, which creates programs and training for non-disabled people to build empathy for the experience of people with disabilities. SCG was proud to host Candance during our full-day disability conference, “Enabling Foundations, Nonprofits, and Partners to Include People with Disabilities,” where she urged our network to transform our communities into spaces where we celebrate difference and diversity.