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?