Celebrating Disability Pride, Communities and Culture at Georgetown
People with disabilities belong to many diverse communities and racial and cultural backgrounds. At Georgetown, we support, educate and empower disabled community members of all backgrounds and create an environment that is welcoming, inclusive and accessible, and celebrates disabled people’s contributions to our Georgetown community.
Celebrating Disability Cultural Month
This month, Georgetown celebrates Disability Pride Month, highlighting the many and varied contributions of people with disabilities to our university community and to society at large. Learn more about how Georgetown students, faculty and staff are working to create a more inclusive and accessible community for all those at Georgetown and beyond.
Launching the Disability Cultural Center
This fall, Georgetown launched the Disability Cultural Center, an on-campus hub that celebrates disability culture, builds community and provides programming for disabled students, faculty, staff, allies and those interested in learning about disability.
Quick Links
Community and Advocacy
“I want to bring awareness to the speech and debate world. I want the kids participating to know that accessibility is a thing that they deserve. I want to see speech and debate organizations at every level reevaluate what they are doing and make honest efforts to reach out to their disabled participants and help them in the ways they can.”
“As I started to understand my own disabled identity, I started putting it more into my academics: I started looking at the way disabled students are consistently disenfranchised, and I noticed that there was a lack of research about disabled students.”
“People often ask me what religious texts say about disability. This book flips that question on its head and asks: ‘What does disability offer to Jewish tradition, to spiritual life and to the practice of building meaningful community?’“
A Testimonial
“The ultimate goal is to co-create space where disabled people (with apparent and non-apparent disabilities) can fully belong and thrive.”
Alumni Engagement
The university established the Disability Empowerment Endowment Fund through a seed gift from Tiffany Yu (B’10), founder of the company Diversability – which started as a student group at Georgetown.
In the News
Georgetown’s Office of Student Equity and Inclusion opened a new community center that will be the campus’ central hub for diversity, equity and inclusion work.
Learn how students, faculty and staff are promoting disability access, awareness and empowerment at Georgetown.
Ethics Lab and Disabilities Studies Partnership
With the support of a $100,000 current-use gift from Matt (C’02, L’09) and Jenae (L’09) Ruesch, the Ethics Lab is creating a new three-week disabilities studies module to be piloted in the Introduction to Ethics course offered through Georgetown’s philosophy department.
A Testimonial
“I’ve learned so much from the disability community at Georgetown. Disability doesn’t have to be something clinical or medical; it can be a source of pride and community.“
Disability Culture and Policy
“This art piece is my visual representation of a sensation I feel constantly. It is a celebration of disability culture because part of recognizing my disability was coming to terms with my ever present need for movement.”
“To become a scientist as a hearing individual, you already have to have tenacity and persistence to overcome so much, but it just becomes that much harder when there’s a communication barrier … Here, I don’t have to fight to be heard”
“My goal is to engage other stakeholders, including non-disabled students and administrators, in education and awareness on the issues facing Disabled people.”