ABOUT US
WOC Feminist. Anti-Capitalist. Disability Justice. Lived Experience Led
Disability justice: a move beyond Disability Rights
​The user-led 'Disability Rights' movement has often focused on building equality for Disabled people by:
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Pushing for change in government and local council policies
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Challenging discrimination by taking legal action
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Advocating the importance of inclusive physical design
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Providing social care services led by-and-for Disabled people.
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We know that the 'Disability Rights' movement has made important gains for all of us - but over time instead of being one part of a flourishing movement, it has become the central infrastructure, or guiding principle of our work as organisations led by Disabled people (DDPOs).
This has limited what we can do together by:
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Focusing on legal battles, lobbying and access to services over nurturing a powerful, inclusive and people-led movement.
- ​Making Disability the sole focus of our work, ignoring how injustices related to race, gender, sexuality, poverty, immigration status and more also shape Disabled peoples' lives.
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Centring the leadership, perspectives of a small group of relatively privileged Disabled people, and not addressing the presence of privilege in the Disability rights movement.
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While we recognise and honour the tireless work of the Disabled leaders who have come before us, as multiply marginalied Disabled people...
we long for more.
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This is why, at Birthing Ourselves, we use the Disability Justice framework to help us dream more into existance.
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Disability justice: The practice of building community
"I have loved Disabled people of colour my whole adult life and am still amazed to discover that the more I love our people, the more I remember where I come from.
I remember that our ancestors found each other out, seeing each other in the unseen. My ancestors knew that asking after one another and making sure folks had what they need (what we might understand as collective access) was the only way to be together; together, the best shot at staying alive.
My ancestors knew the power of vulnerability and how to hold each other in dignity. My ancestors knew joy. My ancestors made mistakes and meditated on who they wanted to be in community.
My ancestors became these people."
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- Stacey Milbern
Disability justice: co-creating inclusive liberation
"Disabled communities have wisdom. We survive when we co-create a world that honours us, a world where we are never too much"
- Shayda Kafai
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At Birthing Ourselves, we dream of ​a vibrant, inclusive and healing Disability Justice movement that welcomes and is relevant to us all. We are an organisation that is led by multiply marginalised Disabled people (or DDPO).
When we say multiply marginalised, we mean Disbled people who are also black and brown, queer, womxn, raised or currently poor, asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and those with insecure immigration status.
We exist as a space for multiply marginalised Disabled people who long for more from our movement. Longing for more isn't just an expression of the soul - but a deep political requirement.​ As our national politics move further to the right, and political rhetoric sows division, as governments become increasingly unwilling to honour the sanctity of Universal Human Rights, our organising needs to change; the way we build our movement needs to change.​​​
This is why, at Birthing Ourselves, our work is rooted in the 10 principles of Disability Justice (read more here) . They were first conceived of by Patti Berne as part of their work with Sins Invalid. The 10 principles are:
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​1. Intersectionality
2. Leadership of the most impacted
3. Anti-Capitalist Politics
4. Cross-Movement Solidarity
5. Recognising Wholeness
6. Sustainability
7. Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
8. Interdependence
9. Collective Access
10. Collective Liberation.
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These principles don't just offer us a framework for understanding oppression - they centre our attention on how we build - reminding us of all the things our system relies on us to forget. Using the Disability Justice framework as a guide helps us to co-create social justice movements that honour Crip wisdom and include Disabled people.​​