Tucson holds first ever Disability Pride Day

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) – December 3 is International Persons with Disabilities Day, and here in Tucson, people celebrated its first-ever Disability Pride Day.

The festivities took place at Udall Park and included performances, discussions, adaptive sports and so much more.

It was a big step in the right direction, but there’s still more work to be done to make things more accessible to people with disabilities.

“It’s a very welcoming feeling, makes me feel included and like I matter,” said attendee, Sari Lipp.

It was a day designed to spread awareness, break down stigmas, and celebrate people in our community who have disabilities.

“We’re active in many different parts of society and I think it’s a good area to bring awareness to everybody here in Tucson,” Lipp said.

Many local organizations were present as part of the resource fair, including Therapeutic Riding of Tucson.

“As a community it’s really nice to pull us all together and be supportive of one another, being able to show people that we’re all in it together is really wonderful and I hope that we get to do it again,” Margaux DeConcini, the development director, said.

The vision for Tucson’s first Disability Pride Day was to bring people together, work through differences, and create a better understanding between people with disabilities and people who are able-bodied. This was done through discussion sessions, performances by disabled artists, and adaptive sports games.

“I think one of the amazing opportunities here is that, if you’re family hasn’t been touched by a disability, if you’re not really involved in that community very often, this is an opportunity to kind of have your eyes open and see some things that you might not be familiar with,” explained Ward 2 Council Member, Paul Cunningham. “And if you are, this is an opportunity to identify resources and expand that support system that exists.”

Though today went on successfully, there’s still more work to be done, like creating more resources so that people with disabilities can function independently.

“There’s never enough resources for anything, but I think we’re going to build all the resources we can and also make sure they’re continuous and they’re woven together,” Cunningham explained.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero officially proclaimed today, December 3, 2022 as Disability Pride Day. Right now, the City of Tucson is working on the next steps to improve accessibility.

“We just hire our equity officer, the first ever in the city of Tucson. She already is working with our commission on disability issues,” Mayor Romero said. “We are definitely working toward creating much more ADA accessibility in our streets and making sure our buses are friendly to our disabled community.”

If you missed the Disability Pride Day event you can find more information on the organizations that were there and the resources they offer at this link.

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