Celebrate Disability Pride Month with online screening of film
By Ryan Clark and Lindsay Travis
CHS Contributors
Celebrate Disability Pride Month with a 1 p.m. online screening of the documentary film, “If I Can’t Do It, It Ain’t Worth Doing,” featuring Kentucky’s own Arthur Campbell.
The 1998 film shares the story of one disabled man’s unforgettable ride through life and the disability rights movement, and is presented by the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute (HDI).
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Campbell.
Disability Pride Month is celebrated each year in July. Disability Pride initially started as a day of celebration in 1990 — the year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day, the American Bar Association reports. The first official celebration of Disability Pride Month occurred in July 2015, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the ADA. Since then, cities across the country have celebrated disability pride month with parades and other festivities.
The month celebrates disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of who they are, reclaiming visibility in public and interacting fully with their disabilities out in the open, and rejecting shame and internalized ableism.
It is a time for the disability community to come together, uplift, and amplify one another’s voices and be heard. Disability pride has been described as “accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”
Arthur Campbell Jr., who fought for accessible public transportation in Louisville in the ’80s and continues to be an activist for disability rights.
Campbell was born with cerebral palsy in a cabin in Kentucky and lived “in virtual isolation” for the first 38 years of his life. He is a wheelchair user and is open about the challenges he’s faced navigating the world around him.
“Mr. Campbell’s story is important to share this month, but even more important to keep in mind year-round. Accessible transportation isn’t a convenience — it’s a lifeline that empowers people with disabilities to live, work and thrive in our communities,” said Kathy Sheppard-Jones, Ph.D., HDI executive director.
In Kentucky, roughly one in three adults has a disability. And, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, nearly three million trips per year on the state’s transit bus system are taken by people who are elderly or have disabilities.
Thanks to Campbell’s tenacity, all of Louisville’s public transportation buses were wheelchair accessible by 1990. The fight didn’t stop there. In protesting for change for people with disabilities, Campbell said he’s been arrested nearly 30 times in 12 states.
In 2015, he was honored with the first-ever Lifetime Advocacy Award from the Statewide Council for Vocational Rehabilitation, a partner of the Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.
In his acceptance speech, Campbell said he endured additional challenges because of his respect for those facing similar struggles.
“In fact, because of this respect and love, I decided to dedicate the rest of my life as a civil rights worker, working in the disability fields, helping to empower and gain my dear disabled brothers and sisters and my human and civil rights with dignity and respect,” said Campbell, who is now the namesake of the award.
The screening of “If I Can’t Do It, It Ain’t Worth Doing” also coincides with the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act being signed into law.
Register here to watch: https://uky.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0odOCvqD4uGNC08-jxn1CbBL28Qyw9Lq4z#/registration