#disability pride flags

[intervex]

Disability and intersex: three new flags for three different intersections

EDIT 2024-09-20: new survey on intersex disability flags & coining!

[original post continues...]

The flag on the top with the disability pride rainbows on both sides of the flag is for understanding intersex as part of the disability community. Having the stripes on both ends represent people with other disabilities standing in solidarity with intersex people & fighting the same fights against pathologization, for bodily autonomy, etc.

Considering intersex to be part of the disability community is NOT the same thing as considering intersex to be a medical disorder (intermedicalism). Many disabled people are actively fighting medicalization, with groups like the capital-D Deaf community, mad pride, and the neurodiversity movement being examples.

The flag on the lower left with dark grey on both sides represents people who have disabilities caused by being intersex. For example: chronic pain as a result of IGM, (C)PTSD from medical trauma. People with disabilities linked to being intersex, such as Deafness attributed to MRKH, are also welcome to use this flag.

Finally, the flag on the lower right is for intersex people who also have non-intersex disabilities (e.g. ADHD, EDS, Long Covid). It's an alternative to @queercripintersex's disabled intersex flag for people who prefer the disability pride flag over the universal symbol of access.

I personally interpret @queercripintersex's disabled intersex flag as a flag for intersex and disabled in any way: so it would include people who are disabled solely due to being intersex AND people who are intersex who have non-intersex-related disabilities.

Finally, I wanna coin ~terms~ to go with the first two flags! (Intersex is in disability community; disability secondary to being intersex). But I've been indecisive about what to call them. Disintersex is a solid contender.... but which flag should it be for? 🤔 Interdisabled already has an unrelated meaning. Interdissex is open. Variations on crip also have potential, but I know it's a contested term.

So: two polls! Both polls have the same options, so when voting consider that I want distinct names for the two flags. First poll is below, second poll will be in a second post. 💜

[rjalker]

May 25th 2023

Cane user pride flag because as far as I can tell no one else has made one. Normal, and one with the cane user symbol I made.

Here is a link to the web archive page where you can download HD versions of the flag and symbol. Both are public domain because I hate capitalism and I say so.

The only thing I request is that you include image descriptions wherever possible, and link other people to the files or at least let them know they're free to use for anything.

Colors are from my synesthesia.

[ID: Four versions of a pride flag with six horizontal stripes. From top to bottom, they are: Light grey, grey-green, dark grey, violet purple, medium blue, and turquoise blue.

The second, third, and fourth versions of the flag are the same as the first, but with a cane user symbol in the center, which is a white stick figure with a black outline. The figure is walking forward with a cane in their left hand, which is held forward to follow their right foot, while their right hand and left leg are going back. The first figure is skinny and made up only only straight lines and angles, except for the circle of the head. The second is still skinny, but has rounded edges. The third is fatter, with rounded edges.

End ID.]

You are 100% encouraged to download this and share it wherever you want, and use it for anything you want, including selling designs using it! And yes, this includes people who don't use canes!

You are also encouraged to edit the symbol in any way you want, to include more body types, add more disabilities, add gender symbols, pride flags, and anything else you want!

You can buy this design from my Threadless shop!

Here again is the web archive link, where you can download all the versions of the flag and symbol, and some other relevant things!

If you would like to share on other sites, you can credit me by linking to the web archive post, so that everyone can download the HD versions of the flag! You can also link to my Threadless shop above!

[verdantwyrm]

HDS Flag, for people who have a Hidden Disability that isn't visible to the average person and are represented by the sunflower. 

[a-little-revolution]

☆ October is Dwarfism Awareness Month!!!! ☆

Elliot (27, they/them) here, I have Achondroplasia dwarfism and run this blog in the hopes to spread some education and awareness on my disability! I am also queer, nonbinary, hard of hearing, and a spoonie! Follow to get to know me and hopefully learn more about my community!!

[cheekypockets]

Happy Disability Pride Month!!!!!

[foone]

We all like to joke about July being "Gay Wrath Month" but it's actually Disability Pride Month, so have the Disability Pride Flag from VGAPride and my AST Premmia LX MS-DOS machine

[chronicallycouchbound]

A drawing of my wheelchair for disability pride month!

(ID: on a medium grey background is a line art drawing of an ultra-lightweight wheelchair, specifically a Tilite Aero Z chair. The line art is colored in a gradient in stripes to mimic the disability pride flag. The colors from the lower left to the upper right are: a muted red, yellow, white, sky blue and a hunter green. End ID)

[artfromrainydays]

Happy disability pride month!

Wanted to share the new ghosties with some mobility aids and medical devices! Remember, you are valid! Take care of yourself this pride month.

[love9620]

[weekly-eons]

Is there a sticker version of disability pride Sylveon? If not may I have your good graces to print off a small one at like CVS or sumfin' and put it on my laptop? I would adore to put such a lovely, creative and beautiful little drawing on it. I think you are really talented.

All the best

Erwynne

Well there is one now!

[ipso-faculty]

Proposing new meanings for the Disability Pride Flag stripes

I love the design of the disability pride flag made by @capricorn-0mnikorn (in consultation with many disabled people!). It’s beautiful, elegant, and distinct. I love the symbolism of the diagonal stripes.

But the more I think about the meanings of the five diagonal stripes, the more uncomfortable I am with them. So I'll explain my discomfort and then give proposed alternative meanings.

For those unfamiliar, these are the meanings that capricorn-0mnikorn gives:

The White Stripe: Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities

The Red Stripe: Physical Disabilities

The Gold Stripe: Neurodivergence

The Blue Stripe: Psychiatric Disabilities

The Green Stripe: Sensory Disabilities

With additional and helpful context here! 💙 Like a lot of disabled people my disabilities don't all fit neatly into these boxes, but I recognize some disabled people see themselves in these categories. I do appreciate the symbolism of it being the most common flag colours / internationalism plus the intent of representing diversity amongst the disability community.

Here’s what doesn’t sit well with me:

The yellow was chosen for the neurodiversity stripe because gold = Au = autism (and also as a fuck you to autism speaks, a sentiment I agree with 💯). 

So autism is used to represent all of neurodiversity. Even though the 2018 AutisticsUK campaign to associate gold with autism was explicitly motivated by the idea that neurodiversity is larger than just autism and autistic people should have our own colour/symbol distinct from the rainbow infinity used for general neurodiversity.

One specific disability is effectively being given a whole stripe (autism) while the other four stripes are based on abstract ideas: red is associated with body -> physical disability, blue is associated with the mind (and is “opposite” to red) so -> mental disability. This is reasonable but it’s inconsistent. (And I am very much the kind of autistic who gets bothered by internal inconsistency 😅)

The Deaf community has been using cyan blue for ages (since at least 1999, probably older) and they have been so vital in disability rights history. I feel if any single disability deserves to get an entire stripe to themselves it should be them.

I appreciate the honestly that assigning green to sensory disabilities was because “that was the color that was left over” but it still feels wrong given how vital blind & deaf people have been to disability history. 

Blue for mental/emotional disabilities also misses that the Mad Pride movement has been using purple as their colour since at least 2013. 

If all five stripes were disconnected from actual disability-specific pride flags I think I’d be okay with it. What sets me off is the inconsistency: autism gets the privilege of its own chosen colour but not other disabilities? (Also: autism isn’t the only disability that uses yellow!)

My proposal for new meanings

I propose each stripe represent a different cause of disability, and the associated model(s) of disability that go with that cause:

Red: disability due to injury / the debility model of disability - e.g. injury due to armed conflicts caused by colonialism, injury due to gun violence in a country which fails to regulate gun safety, preventable illness due to sociopolitical neglect 😡🩸

Yellow: disability due to natural differences / affirmative models of disability - e.g. autistic people who lead lives that take advantage of their autistic traits, DSPS folks who are able to work night shifts and take pride in doing so 😄🌟

Blue: situational disabilities / critical models like the social model, social construction model, political/relational model, and radical model - e.g. a Deaf person who feels their only disability is that people don’t speak their signed language and don’t provide captions/etc 🗣️♿️

Green: disability due to illness / biomedical models of disability - e.g. people with conditions like ME/CFS and Long Covid who actually do want to be treated/cured 🤢🦠

White: disability caused by unknown or other factors / other models such as the human rights model - e.g. somebody with a poorly-understood and/or undiagnosed illness who is fighting for access for accommodations and medical care 👀🤍

People may relate to multiple stripes! Whether it’s for the same disability or for having multiple disabilities. Like the old meanings, the intent is to showcase our internal diversity. 🌈

It’s been my experience of disability community that attitudes about disability tend (in general) to be linked more to when/how we were disabled rather than mental/physical/sensory/etc. For example, people like me who were disabled from a young age tend to understand our disabilities differently than people who acquire disability later in life.

Colour choice justifications:

Red as disabilities caused by injury: keeping with capricorn-0mnikorn’s association of red with the body plus the common associations of red with blood, violence, and anger. I want to explicitly include the debility model of disability because a lot of white disabled people tend to forget or gloss over how disability is used as a weapon against racialized & Global South folks.

Yellow is associated with optimism and pleasure as well as enlightenment (such as in the Deaf flag) and so I connect it to the affirmation model of disability (which is the opposite of the charity/tragedy model). From there I associated it to disability due to natural differences, such as congenital neurodivergence. I want yellow to still be something that fellow autistics could still see themselves in the flag for! 💛 And I want intersex people who see their intersex variation as a disability to be able to see themselves here too because being intersex is natural 💛 

Blue as disabilities that are social/situational in nature, like Deafness being a disability in situations where signed languages are unavailable. I wanted Deafness to actually be under blue this time. 💙 

Blue has also been used for disability writ large for a long time now and so this one being the one associated with the Social Model feels most historically connected to me. I’m also including newer critical/postmodern models like the social construction model and radical model which also posit that disability is a social category rather than a deficiency of individuals’ bodyminds.

The social model is generally contrasted with the medical model - viewing disability as a medical problem. A lot of disability activism is focused on de-medicalizing our bodyminds and challenging the idea that we want to be cured. 

But there are chronic illnesses like ME/CFS, long covid, and cancer where the people who are disabled by them do actively (and vocally) want to be cured! And they belong to the disability community too.  Green was picked for illness because green has been used to symbolize sickness (e.g. the 🤮 emoji). And biomedical models like the traditional medical model and the more recent biopsychosocal model are thematically connected to disability being due to illness.

For white, I want people who are undiagnosed and/or who feel the invisibility of their disability as important to again be able to see themselves in this stripe. 🩶White is also the catch-all “other models” because of white being the sum of all colours in an additive colour model. Models like the human rights model I see as being appealing to disabled people who are feeling invisibilized by society.

For each stripe I've included both a cause of disability and a model of disability. The causes are concrete, and easy to understand. The models of disability are more abstract and not everybody will know them (especially ableds). But a flag gives us an opportunity to teach others about us and I think it's a great opportunity to increase awareness of the different views/models of disability. 🖤

Overall, I tried to keep as much of capricorn-0mnikorn’s reasoning/associations alive in my new proposed meanings as I could. 💜 I hope people who see themselves in a given stripe of the original flag will see themselves in this scheme as well. I hope people who didn’t see themselves in the original scheme find these options more inclusive. ☮️

[intervex]

Autism Spectrum Pride flags with Nautilus

Flag on top has the Autism Spectrum Nautilus on a plain white background, in the style of the neurodiversity flag. (It's actually an offwhite to be a little easier on the eyes).

Flag on bottom left uses the colour scheme from the controversial red-orange-gold-lime-green (ROYLG) autistic flag since I know many people like it and its colour scheme is pretty nice. (As far as I'm concerned the ROYLG flag is salvageable as long as the Métis infinity symbol is not used in it.) I use diagonal stripes in this flag as a reference to the disability pride flag.

Flag on bottom right uses the grey from the disability pride flag.

Why a nautilus? It's a reference to the Autism Spectrum Wheel, and also it has a fractal-like pattern that maintains the theme of infinity symbols. Also I think invertebrates are underappreciated. For those unfamiliar with the Spectrum Wheel:

The nautilus symbol is public domain, and an SVG is available here. The flags above are also public domain. So feel free to remix and reuse! 🧡

The newer version of the nautilus symbol used here drops the outline lines that were in the first version, thanks to a suggestion by my friend Océane.

Tagging for archival: @radiomogai @liom-archive @disabilityflagsarchive @disabilitypride @auti-archive @beyond-mogai-pride-flags Ty 🧡

EDIT 2024-12-21: added the grey version.

[rjalker]

All the versions of the cane user symbol (minus the stick figure) on the cane user flag so far.

For future reference since I'll probably forget again, outline is 120 pixels.

pro tip: make the symbol you're designing the right size to go directly on top of the flag, lol.........I did not do this. So these will each be slightly off center.

[ID: Four versions of the cane user flag, with different variations of the cane user symbol on each one.

The cane user flag has six horizontal stripes of: Light grey, grey-green, dark grey, violet purple, medium blue, and turquoise blue.

Each symbol in the center is a figure in white with a black outline, walking with a cane in the left hand, and stepping forward with the right foot.

The first three have rounded edges. The first is chubby, the second is thinner, the third is skinny,and the last is a skinny figure made of only straight lines, except for the circle for the head.

End ID.]

You can download these (along with a few other related things) in HD from the web archive here.

You can buy designs with this flag from my Threadless store here.

You are encouraged to download these and share them, and use them for anything you want, including making your own merch to sell! All I ask is that you add an image description whenever possible when sharing online, and link others to the web archive page where they can download an HD version of the flag if they want!

You are 100% encouraged to edit the symbol, too! Add more disabilities, body types, gender symbols, pride flags, anything you want! You can find the original files at the web archive link above!

[b33viemm]

Collage!

This is it! I put my whole long nice message in the Day 30 post [link] so I'll keep this short 😅 Thank you to anyone who requested anything (especially for the Disabled Pride Flag, if you're seeing this). Had a lot of fun :)

ID in alt Click for higher quality

Feel free to to with credit

(List of sharks below with links)

1 - Lesbian Whale Shark

2 - Transgender Tiger Sharks

3 - Abrosexual Lemon Shark

4 - Bigender Thresher Shark

5 - Aromantic Angel Shark

6 - Pansexual Hammerhead

7 - Genderfluid Bonnethead Shark

8 - Intersex Pacific Spadenose

9 - Asexual Epaulette Shark

10 - Bisexual Nurse Shark

11 - Gay Leopard Shark

12 - Nonbinary Horn Shark

13 - Aroace Basking Shark

14 - Sapphic Zebra Sharks

15 - Unlabeled Brown Shyshark

16 - Kleegender Oceanic Whitetip

17 - Genderqueer Wobbegong

18 - Achillean Bull Shark

19 - Voidpunk Catshark

20 - Leather Greenland Shark

21 - Nebularomantic Goblin Shark

22 - Lesboy Frilled Shark

23 - Gaybian Bahamas Sawshark

24 - Uranic Giant Manta Ray

25 - Demigender Port Jackson

26 - Gendervoid Chimaera "Ghost Shark"

27 - Bi Nonbinary Spiny Angelshark

28 - Queer Great White Shark

29 - Rainbow Flag Bamboo Shark

30 - Original Pride Flag (Gilbert Baker) Bluntnose Sixgill Shark

1b (July) - Disability Pride Silky Shark

[a-little-revolution]

Image Description: @surehandslift's post "The Disability Pride Flag" with the pastel disability pride flag under text that reads "Ann Magill, the flag's creator, worked with the photosensitive community to make the flag more accessible".

Over each stripe of the flag it reads: "Sensory Disabilities" over the green, "Psychiatric Disabilities" over the blue, "Invisible Disabilities" over the white, "Neurodivergence" over the yellow, and "Physical Disabilities" over the red. Over the grey background it reads "Mourns victims of violence and abuse against people with disabilities".

[beyond-mogai-pride-flags]

A[n intersex-inclusive] progress pride flag that explicitly includes disabled, altersex, a-spec, and ethically non-monogamous people.

The altersex symbol and intersex symbol interlock, to showcase unity within the varsex community.

The a-spec compass and ethically non-monogamous heart are both within a single symbol, to showcase the unity of going against amatonormativity.

Whenever I reblogged this post by @dhddmods, the flag and its meanings above got lost, so I'm reposting. -Ap