Sins Invalid






Limitations of Traditional Disability Justice/ Disability Rights Movement

  • Ignores Intersectionality
    • Race, Religion, Gender, SES, Immigration Status, Cultural Values
  • White-male-hetrosexual-Centric. White-privilege centric
    • (eg: Parallels in Psychology Research which is WEIRD-centric: Western Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic Countries)
  • Power/Status-Centric
    • Centered around people who have achieved status through legal framework,
    • Why: Rights have to be won by litigation. So unequal access to rights across the board. You don’t sue, you lose
  • Mobility-Impairment Centric
    • Access needs as beyond architectural barriers. 


What are we looking for in a Disability Justice Framework
  • All mind-bodies unique and essential
  • All mind-bodies have strengths + needs that must be met
  • All mind-bodies are Powerful, despite complexities
  • Mind-Bodies are confined by & cannot be separated from our intersectionalities.


Key concepts
  • Connectedness
  • Interdependence
  • Relational & transformative framework.

Sins Invalid. 10 Principles of Disability Justice

  1. Intersectionality
  2. Leadership of the Most Impacted
  3. Anti-capitalist Politic
  4. Commitment to Cross-movement organizing
  5. Reorganizing wholeness
  6. Sustainability
  7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
  8. Interdependence
  9. Collective Access
  10. Collective Liberation
1. Intersectionality

Disability is another layer of intersectionality we experience
Impacted by White Privilege,/ Colonial legacy


Intersectionality is not about who is suffering the most but about who is impacted in which areas. 

  • Within our own intersectionality we experience privilege in some areas and oppression in others; varying across context.
Intersectionality impacts access to spaces/ community/ resources /inclusion and funding.


Me -->  Autistic + ADHD + other medical/sensory/mood/communication issues + South-Indian descent + Tamil Hindu Iyengar Brahmin + vegetarian + multilingual etc.


What Can be Done
  • Recognize Disability is not a vacuum.
  • Collaborate on overlapping issues
  • What else?

2. Leadership of the Most Impacted

  • System impacts are not equal.
  • People most hurt by the system often have a better understanding of what all is wrong with that system.

What Can be Done
  • Prioritize the more marginalized voices
  • Be aware of hierarchies within disability
  • Eg: an unspoken hierarchy means unequal access
  • What else?

3. Anti-capitalist Politic

  • Disabled Mind-Body is anti-capitalist
  • Why:
    • Capitalism = Survival of Fittest
    • Competition towards wealth accumulation, land acquisition for the ruling class.
  • Therefore:
    • By definition the “non-normative” mind-body of disabled people are invalidated.
What can be done
  • Rethink Worth of an individual beyond as beyond productivity. Eg: some may not be able to “contribute” in the traditional sense due the more significant disability and THAT’s OK!!
  • Work on issues that are exacerbated by capitalism Eg: homeless disabled, health care, poverty
  • Access at times has a “price tag” in capitalist society- so either need to be creative with solutions or organize funding sources.
  • What else?

4. Commitment to Cross-movement organizing

  • A relational and transformation framework of Disability Justice means we need to think about disability and ableism in many different ways
  • Learn from other movements
  • Paraphrasing what Stuart James, Director of CIL said during class visit to Ed Roberts Campus, Spring 2018 Sem.
    • “We need to learn from the Gay Rights movement which in just 30 years has become mainstream. “
What can be done?
  • Disability does not exist in vacuum
  • You can reach out for allies in unlikely places.
  • Eg: Reproductive justice is Disability justice. , Climate Justice is Disability Justice
  • Mixed movement organizing (“nurturing old ways & inventing new ways)
  • What else?

5. Reorganizing wholeness

  • Disabled people are whole people
  • Everyone is a living breathing thinking individual with emotions, sensations, perceptions and quirks.
What can we do
  • Reject capitalist notion of worth of an individual as tied to his perceived “productivity”
  • Recognize & support: “We all struggle together” imperfectly
  • What else?

6. Sustainability

  • Transformation needs to be deep, longlasting and sustained.
  • But Transformation does not happen overnight.
  • Disabled mind-body needs to be paced according to the “spoons” available to us.
  • “Rest is resistance, Survival is resistance, Anything else is extra”

What can we do?
  • Group effort, flexible schedules/ deadlines
  • Avoid Burnout
  • What else?

7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity

  • There can be NO Disability Justice, unless there is Disability Justice for all.
  • “Honor insights of all community members”
  • “We are trying to break down barriers”
What Can be Done
  • Means working together. Collaboration
  • Connections that cross living, advocacy and education.
  • Eg: autism + deaf have communication access as a common issue.
  • What else?

8. Interdependence

  • State Solutions → they control our lives
  • Interdependence → we control our lives & help each other. (Our interdependence with other humans & nature was already part of our unconscious before western colonization.)
What Can be Done
  • Check ins
  • How to ask for help & communicate needs
  • Share spoons
  • What else?

9. Collective Access

  • Access Needs are not shameful / not a favor
  • Access Needs are not fixed - depend on context and environment.
  • We can share responsibility for our access needs.
  • Needs community, shared responsibility and creative out-of-the-box nuances.

What Can be Done
  • Pool resources
  • What else?

10. Collective Liberation

  • Disability justice is a vision.
  • Moving together is what gets us to liberation
  • We are all survivors. “Listen to the Canaries”
  • “We honor the longstanding legacies of resilience & resistance” for all non-conforming mind-bodies.
What can we do
  • Recognize: “moving together does not mean we move in the same way;” we are still valued in any way we move.
  • What else?

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