What is Disability Justice?
Disability Justice is a terminology that was first officially coined by the Sins Invalid, a collective of disabled queer women of color. The terminology builds on the disability rights movement, which started in the 1960s in the United States.
Disability Justice goes one step beyond the disability rights framework, which refers to the legal and social measures and is notably strongly embedded in the UNCRPD (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and its Monitoring Mechanism, the Conference of the State Parties (COSP) to provide legally required accommodations to persons with disabilities.
Indeed, Disability Justice takes a more comprehensive approach, asserting that the experiences of multiply marginalized people with disabilities must be included. It also takes a systems change approach to the question of ableism and its intersection with other systems of oppressions.
By supporting groups and organizations of persons with disabilities, our goal is to uplift the important work on Disability Justice they have already been doing for decades. “Nothing (about us) without us” is the claim of the movement: any matters that affect us should only be discussed in our presence.
Organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) are to be involved in all processes, and not only those that focus on disability, inclusion, accessibility. They have a stake in workers’ rights, policies on climate change resilience, and sexual and reproductive health rights too. Currently, there are still too many spaces, negotiation tables or declarations where matters related to disability or even disability itself are discussed without representation from the community.
Despite the work of OPDs and disability activists being critically underfunded and the weight of ableism and exclusion that persons with disabilities carry on their shoulders, the disability movement can tap into a great reservoir of energy, solidarity, and joy. The movement is globally strong and also grounded in local realities, notably thanks to the work of our partners like the Disability Rights Fund (DRF) or Action on Disability and Development (ADD). It works on building power throughout the diversity of its members and not despite it. The movement is also reflecting on power dynamics and intersectionality. It is recognizing the different identities within the movement, including youth, racialized persons, indigenous people, women or other gender minorities.