Blog

July is Disability Pride Month

Blog 20, July 2023

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in July 1990. That same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day. In 2015, to mark the 25th anniversary of this groundbreaking legislation, the first Disability Pride Month was observed and has been recognized in each subsequent July. It is an opportunity to honor the history, experiences, struggles, and achievements of the differently abled.

During Disability Pride Month, disabled persons, and all of us, celebrate the differently abled and embrace their differences as integral parts of who they are. It marks the long-fought battle to reclaim public visibility and interact with the world fully, with their disabilities out in the open, rejecting ableism.

It is an opportunity to remember how the community can come together to uplift and amplify each other's voices. 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."

The American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers (AAADM) has long been an ally in the fight to make public buildings accessible to all. AAADM members were actively involved in the years-long campaign to make updates to the International Building code (IBC) a reality. It culminated in 2021's IBC provision, long sought by accessibility advocates, that mandated inclusion of automatic doors for entrances to public buildings. The code applies to a wide range of public places, including retail stores, restaurants, clubs and casinos, movie theaters and concert halls, libraries, banks, and college dormitories.

Joe Hetzel, technical advisor to AAADM, has long been a proponent of greater accessibility and first began working to update the code a decade ago. Language he helped craft was submitted and approved during the 2021 IBC code development cycle, resulting in the updated requirements.

At the time, Joe said, "The code addresses a public need. It is widely accepted that automatic doors enhance overall accessibility and accommodate a wide array of conditions that might make using standard doors difficult, if not infeasible. The new code requirement accommodates a wide variety of accessibility needs that manual doors being installed today cannot encompass."

We are proud to play a small part in helping the differently abled achieve the independence that many of us take for granted. Happy Disability Pride Month!

SHARE ON: