We are working on our website and to provide everything in english.
This will take some time.
We try to write in English that everyone understands.
There are still parts that are difficult to understand.
We are working on that.
We are a group of
– disabled
– chronically ill
– mentally ill
– Mad
– neurodivergent
– Deaf
people. We explain these words in our dictionary.
We are always happy when new people join us.
We say:
Nothing about us without us.
We are happy when non-disabled people help us.
We need money to make sure our events are accessible.
We are happy when you tell others about us. And about what we are doing.
But:
Only disabled people speak at our demonstration.
Our voices are so rarely heard/figure of speech.
Too often, we don´t regard disabled people as experts.
We won’t accept that.
We want to be visible as people with disabilities.
Other people should listen to us.
They should know what ableism is.
They should help us fight against ableism.
Society tells us:
– A disability is the worst thing that can happen to us.
– Life with a disability is worthless.
We as the Disability and Mad Pride Bonn say:
For many of us, the disability isn´t the problem.
However, we all face one problem: ableism.
We show some photos of members of our team
Image description:
1. Koi (em | ems)
Koi is a white agender person with sunglasses and short green hair. Here we see em holding the “pride poster”:
Each letter is written in different pride colours with Braille below it. On the upper part of the poster are the neurodivergent and AIDS bows. The Deaf Pride Flag can be seen too.
2. Lena (sie | dey)
Lena is sitting in a wheelchair in front of the clothes horse on which we hung our T-Shirts during our demonstration.
She is wearing the Disability Pride Bonn T-Shirt and is smiling.
3. Solveïg (hen | hens)
non•binary, with flyers in hand. Hen is wearing the Disability Pride T-Shirt, which also says “Disabled and Proud” (in the colours of the non•binary pride flag).
4. Matthias (er | ihm)
read as male, with beard, in wheelchair, at the demo.
5. Our first event ever
In the photo you can see Lena, Josephine and Matthias, all of them are white wheelchair users, around a table with posters, T-shirts and flyers.
All three are laughing and looking at the camera / turning towards the camera.
This was our first information booth on Münsterplatz.
It’s busy, there are many shops in the background.
6. Lena and Solveïg at the microphone
both wearing high-visibility waistcoats.
Lena is sitting in a wheelchair, Solveïg on a folding chair.
7. Our second information booth
Information stand with our spray-painted T-shirts hanging on a clothes horse.
You can see:
– Matthias (perceived as a man, with beard, wheelchair user)
– Solveïg (non-binary, with glasses, holding the sign “Disabled and proud” and standing behind the clothes horse)
– Josy (perceived as a woman, wheelchair user, holding flyers)
– Lena (wheelchair user, wearing a Disability Pride T-Shirt and holding a sign saying “Black Disabled Lives Matter” with the hand).
All 4 are white.
Our information booth was on the market square (crossing Bonngasse) in front of lots of cobblestones (yeah!).
Image description Logo: The background consists of the disability pride flag designed by Ann Magill in 2021. The flag has turquoise, blue, white, yellow and red stripes in front of a grey background. The name “Disability and Mad Pride Bonn” is displayed in the centre of the logo in black letters. There are three more components: the face with the wide yellow mouth of the Mad Pride Flag as designed by sarafin, the neurodivergence loop (the infinity loop in rainbow colours) and the word “Pride” fingerspelled.