longmoreinstituteondisability:

chutzpadik:

(screams from the rooftops) addiction counts as a disability too, and the refusal to allow addicts access to the disability community:

• ignores the fact that otherwise disabled people ( esp poor disabled people, trans disabled people, disabled people of color) make up a disproportionate percentage of addicts
• says a lot about how we as a community still cater our safe spaces around the comfort of abled people
• needs to stop .

It’s also important to remember that in the US, addicts played a crucial role in establishing disability rights.

Take, for example, the role of addicts in the 504 protests.

In 1977, over a hundred disabled people occupied the old Federal building in San Francisco. They did this to force the government to put into effect the first disability civil rights law (Section 504). The protestors were able to stay the course for 26 days until the government signed 504.

A number of community organizations supported the protest by picketing outside, providing supplies, and creating publicity. One of those organizations was Delancey Street, a residential self-help organization for drug addicts. They provided food from their café to the protestors.

Without the help of Delancey Street and other local organizations, the protestors couldn’t have stayed in the building long enough to force the government’s hand. If not for the protestors, 504 might have never been signed–or it might have been signed with watered down regulations like “separate but equal” (the exact words used by a government official) schools for disabled children. If 504 hadn’t set such a strong precedent, the Americans with Disabilities Act wouldn’t exist.

Without the work of addicts, disability rights as we know them would not exist.

The US disability community owes a lot to addicts. Exclusion from the community is no way to express gratitude.