Celebrating Resilience and Empowerment in Disability Pride Month - 35th National ADA Conference

Amber & Eva at 35th National ADA Conference

Embracing Identity, Advocating for Change, and Celebrating Strength

What is Disability Pride Month?

Each July, we recognize Disability Pride Month, a powerful celebration of the disability community’s identity, culture, and contributions. It began in 1990, the same year the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26th, a landmark civil rights achievement that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life.

Disability Pride is about visibility, empowerment, and the message that disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity. It challenges the idea that disabled people should feel ashamed or be hidden. Instead, it’s about owning our stories, amplifying our voices, and advocating for a world where accessibility and inclusion are the standard and not the exception.

My Journey Through Diagnosis, Loss, and Purpose

In 2008, I was diagnosed with a rare mass cell disease of the small bowel known as Mastocytic Enterocolitis. Years of gastrointestinal struggles followed—until, in 2010, my health journey took another turn with a diagnosis of a microadenoma, a brain tumor. After seven months of radiation, I entered remission—but it came at a cost.

In the years that followed, I began experiencing damage to my autonomic nervous system, eventually leading to dysautonomia. My stomach was the first organ to be affected, and I developed gastroparesis, which ultimately required surgery. In 2014, I lost my stomach and part of my intestines. Five surgeries later, I was on feeding tubes for years, learning to eat all over again.

This period was the onset of profound PTSD and severe anxiety, which consumed my day to day life. It was in 2015 that a new chapter began with the help of a service dog trained to detect low blood sugar who was my partner in regaining some sense of independence and safety and the beginning of my journey of training service dogs.

My journey didn’t stop there. I developed abnormal sinus tachycardia and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), both of which continue to affect my heart and daily functioning. And in 2024, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 bladder cancer, a new battle I’ve been facing head on since.

Disability can change everything in an instant. It can take away plans, force you to rewrite your identity, and place you on a path filled with unknowns. But what it also gave me was purpose. I had to ask myself: Will I let my disabilities define me? Or will I let them help me shine?

From Lived Experience to Advocacy

My disabilities have not only reshaped my body and mind but they’ve reshaped my mission. Now, more than ever, I understand how crucial it is to advocate, educate, and empower.

Through public speaking, consulting, and working directly with businesses, I’ve helped others see the world through an accessibility lens. Whether it’s something as simple as a physical barrier or as complex as a service animal policy, access is not a luxury it’s a basic human right. And understanding that doesn’t require living it, it requires listening and learning.

Celebrating Resilience and Empowerment in Disability Pride Month, we can all be part of creating a more inclusive future. Businesses and individuals can:

• Be proactive in identifying barriers to access both physical and attitudinal

• Learn how to appropriately interact with individuals with service animals

• Create spaces that are sensory friendly, emotionally safe, and cognitively accessible

• Shift from a mindset of “what’s easiest” to “what’s most equitable”.

Disability Pride Month isn’t just about celebration it’s about recognition, reflection, and responsibility. It’s a time to honor those who came before us and made the ADA possible, to uplift those still fighting for visibility and access, and to recommit ourselves to making this world more inclusive not just for disabled people, but because of them.

My story is just one of many. There are millions of others navigating diagnoses, loss, recovery, and resilience. If we listen, learn, and act together we can make space for all of us to shine.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Working to Change the World!

Koda Dog Training & Gear by Pup-Cessories Crafts, LLC