Designed by Ann Magill, a disabled woman, the flag originally included brightly contrasting colors and a lightening flash to represent the obstacles in society that disabled people face. However, after people within the community pointed out how the symbol and colors were inaccessible and potentially triggering for those with neurological conditions it was redesigned by Ann in collaboration with the online disabled community. 

Each of the colours symbolise a different part of the disabled community:

• Red – Physical disabilities
• Yellow – Cognitive and intellectual disabilities
• White – Invisible and undiagnosed disabilities
• Blue – Mental Illness
• Green – Sensory Perception disabilities

The Black field represents those who have died not only due to their disabilities and illness, but also because of suicide, medical negligence and eugenics.

Digital Accessibility Office Hours

Curious about where to start to comply with the new ADA Title II ruling for website and web app accessibility?

Bring your questions to Digital Accessibility Office Hours

Date: Wednesday, June 26th

Time: 9 to 9:50 a.m.

Place: Virtual. Sign up.

Host: Jill Wolters, Digital Accessibility Program Manager

Sign up to attend Digital Accessibility Office Hours

Common topics include:

• Onboarding new users for Siteimprove
• Verifying your page count in Siteimprove is accurate
• Prioritizing accessibility issues
• Using color contrast checker tools
• Exporting reports on PDFs and videos for manual checks
• WCAG 2.1 

UCSF Library acquires audiobooks by disabled authors in celebration of Disability Pride Month

In celebration of Disability Pride Month, the Office of Disability Access and Inclusion and Inclusion has collaborated with the UCSF Library to acquire the following five audio books by disabled authors. 

UCSF affiliates can access them via UC Library Search and request physical copies via interlibrary loan. 

• “Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century: Unabridged Selections,” by Alice Wong (2020) 

• “Black Disability Politics,” by Sami Schalk (2022) 

• “About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times,” edited by Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2019) 

• “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice,” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018) 

• “Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally,” by Emily Ladau (2021) 

Reshaping Perspectives and Narratives around mental health, disability, and neurodivergence within the AANHPI Community

Thurs, July 11, 3:00pm

Virtual event

Register and learn more: Healthcare Advocates for Social Justice Event

Accessibility: UCSF welcomes everyone, including people with disabilities to our events. To request an accommodation, contact Lindsay.Williams@ucsf.edu as soon as possible.

UCSF Healthcare Advocates for Social Justice invite you to join us for a discussion entitled "Reshaping Perspectives and Narratives around mental health, disability, and neurodivergence within the AANHPI Community." The virtual event will feature Vietnamese, autistic storyteller and speaker, Dennis Tran.

As a queer, partially blind, late identified ADHD-autistic neurodiverse Vietnamese American living with glaucoma and C-PTSD, Dennis is using the profound knowledge and mindset shifts he has gained through his late diagnoses towards neurodiversity inclusion. He advocates for others in the disability space and those in marginalized communities to ensure authentic representation, inclusiveness, and accessibility for all.

Disability Cultural Center (DCC) Virtual Kick-Off: A Night of Disability Culture

Date: July 12

Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Location: Virtually (Link will be provided closer to the date Disability Cultural Center Event Calendar)

To launch the Disability Cultural Center, we will begin with a program dedicated to celebrating the range of beauty, creativity, and innovation that disability culture brings to San Francisco.

Join us for live performances by all disabled artists, the majority of whom are BIPOC. Their work in art, music, poetry, dance, and literature challenges perceptions about disability and instead celebrates the beauty that disabled people bring to our world. We will end the program with a community-wide dance and fashion party.

Whether you'll come to our virtual red carpet in your cozy clothes during a pain flare or want to bust out your most couture look, and whether you dance with the movement of your eyes or with your whole body in motion, we're here for it because the opening of the Virtual Disability Cultural Center is cause for celebration!

StaceyFest is a project of the Disability Justice Culture Club and fiscally sponsored by the SPM Disability Justice Fund 501(c)(3). It will be the first disability culture festival in recent memory and an opportunity to celebrate the memory and ongoing legacy of renowned disability justice advocate Stacey Park Milbern.

The festival will take place on Saturday, July 20th 2024 at Frank Ogawa Plaza. In addition to an in-person celebration, we will memorialize the event through video and audio recording and broadcast it as a separate event at a later time.

This transformative community gathering will include:

• a mainstage program featuring disabled artists of color,
• a disability resilience fair that will highlight resources and opportunities for engaging and thriving,
• a community altar to honor our disabled ancestors who have passed, and stories of the rich history of disability rights and disability justice movements that have their roots right here in the East Bay.

In honor of her spirit and activism, the StaceyFest: Disability Love and Legacy Celebration will prioritize disabled culture and community solidarity. Dancers, singers and musicians with various disabilities will perform on stage. Writers and poets will lead readings and discussions. Disability organizations will share their resources with participants and offer opportunities to get involved.

Learn More: StaceyFest: A Disability Justice Love & Legacy Celebration

Café Crip: The Value of Disability Culture

Date: July 26

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (PST)

Location: Virtually (Link will be provided closer to the date on the Disability Cultural Center website)

Cafe Crip will be a monthly opportunity for participants at the SF Disability Cultural Center to come together to talk about important topics within our diverse disability community. Participants will receive readings in advance, but the discussion is organized so that anyone can attend and participate whether or not they have a chance to come prepared.

This event is led by Bianca Laureano, a talented facilitator who leads the group through community agreements and access principles to ensure that everyone can be a part of this informal community-building hangout.

This month's program will follow our virtual night of Disability Culture on 7/12 with a conversation about the power of disability culture to fight ableism, both internalized and external, and promote disability justice.

Disability Portrait Day at SF MoMA

Sat, July 27, 2024

Noon–4 p.m. (PST)

In-Person, Howard Street Corridor

Free and open to the public; museum admission is not required.

For more details and to RSVP, visit SF MoMA Disability Portrait Day.

This collaboration between the Disability Visibility Project and the SF Disability Cultural Center will be in person at SF MoMA. We will host a powerful opportunity to celebrate the beauty of disabled people by inviting our diverse community to have their photographs taken and visit the museum afterward for free. Too often, getting your picture taken as a disabled person has caused harm, with clueless photographers who pressure their models to hide their disabilities or mask as neurotypical.

Even choosing to submit yourself to being stared at through the camera lens can be hard when so many people with apparent disabilities face stares as a part of daily life. Here, our photographer Mia Robinson, a queer trans disabled person, focuses their work on how to celebrate disabled bodies and minds and rewrite the experience of being photographed.

Each participant will receive a print of their photo sent to them after the event and snacks and refreshments as we socialize with other portrait seekers on this celebratory day, marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act with this reminder that we're still here!

For more details and to RSVP, visit SF MoMA Disability Portrait Day.

Creative Growth: The House That Art Built

April 6–October 6, 2024

SF MoMA, Floor 2

Learn more and tickets: Creative Growth Exhibition at SF MoMA

Creative Growth: The House That Art Built celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the first organization in the United States dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities. Today, more than 140 artists work at the organization, using every medium, from painting and drawing to ceramics, wood, fiber, digital media, and printmaking.

This exhibition features a selection from the museum’s recent acquisition of work by Creative Growth artists — Joseph Alef, Camille Holvoet, Susan Janow, Dwight Mackintosh, John Martin, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell, Judith Scott, William Scott, Ron Veasey, and Alice Wong — along with archival material that highlights the organization’s history. Together, the exhibition and historic acquisition present the boundless creativity and impact of these artists on cultural dialogues in the Bay Area and beyond.