Stratford recognizes Disability Pride Month

By: Emily Stewart

For the first time in its history, the Disability Pride flag will be flowing at Stratford City Hall.

Mayor Martin Ritsma raised the Disability Pride Flag on June 30, one day before Disability Pride Month began in July. Disability Pride Month honours people with disabilities and is celebrated every July because then-U.S. president George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law on July 26,1990.

"My heart is full seeing the Disability Pride flag for the first time in Stratford and we will have a whole month of Disability Pride Month to talk about the colours, what they represent and how accessibility for everybody is so important here in Stratford,” said Kat Barry, a member of the City of Stratford accessibility advisory committee (AAC). Barry brought forward the idea to raise the Disability Pride flag.

She also handed out Disability Pride flag buttons and sheets explaining the five different colours on the flag, the design and what it all represents:

Green: represents sensory disabilities.

Blue: represents psychiatric disabilities.

White: represents invisible and undiagnosed disabilities.

Gold: represents neurodivergence, cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

Red: represents physical disabilities.

Grey: represents the mourning of people with disabilities affected by ableism.

Parallel lines: representing solidarity.

Diagonal band: representing cutting across barriers.

"As a minority, we just want to live our lives just like everybody else and every day we seem to find a barrier of some kind,” Barry said.