Disability Justice Resource Guide

This disability justice resources guide came together as a result of the collective planning and work of the ARISE committee to explore and educate ourselves on the principles. It was planned in partnership with L'Arche Buffalo, Neurodiversity Network of WNY, and SANYS. This guide includes resources shared by facilitators of a Disability Justice Workshop that was planned by ARISE. If you have additions or updates to this list please comment below or email kat@voicebuffalo.org.

What Is Disability Justice?

Disability Justice is a movement framework that goes beyond the fight for accessibility or inclusion. It’s about transforming the systems that classify some lives as disposable and others worth protecting.

Source: Sins Invalid

Developed by disabled queer people of color through the work of Sins Invalid and the Disability Justice Collective, Disability Justice recognizes that ableism is deeply connected to racism, capitalism, sexism, classism, and other forms of oppression. It insists that no one is left behind, and that liberation must include those most marginalized within disability communities: people of color, immigrants, queer and trans people, those living in poverty, people with chronic illness, psychiatric disabilities, and cognitive differences.

In an era of funding cuts, attacks on DEIA, and renewed eugenic ideologies, Disability Justice gives us the tools to organize, care for each other, and build alternatives to systems that harm us. It is not just framework, it is a blueprint for survival, solidarity, and transformation.

Foundational Texts

1. (PDF) Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People by Sins Invalid

A Disability Justice primer exploring intersectionality, collective liberation, and leadership of disabled people of color.

2. (Webpage) 10 Principles of Disability Justice by Patty Berne and Sins Invalid

Outlines the guiding framework for Disability Justice — interdependence, cross-disability solidarity, and sustainability.

3. (Book) Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Explores disability justice organizing, care collectives, and the radical power of interdependence.

4. (Blog) Leaving Evidence Blog by Mia Mingus

   We must leave evidence. Evidence that we were here, that we existed, that we survived and loved and ached. Evidence of the wholeness we never felt and the immense sense of fullness we gave to each other. Evidence of who we were, who we thought we were, who we never should have been. Evidence for each other that there are other ways to live--past survival; past isolation.

5. (Book) The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

   Essays on grief, joy, and building a world where all disabled people can thrive.

6. (Online Community) Disability Visibility Project

   An ongoing archive of disabled voices, essays, and oral histories.

Videos & Talks

1. (Video) Disability Justice Is Not a Metaphor with Mia Mingus

   "We are not fighting for inclusion into systems that are killing us. We are fighting to create something else.”

2. (Video) Opening Keynote with Mia Mingus (starting at 5:00 mark)

   Highlights connections between ableism, capitalism, and collective liberation.

3. (Video) Who Belongs? at the Othering & Belonging Conference with Imani Barbarin

   A powerful discussion of belonging, policy, and the ongoing marginalization of disabled communities.

4. (Video) Dreaming Disability Justice into Our Future with Lydia X.Z. Brown

   On imagining beyond the systems that harm us and building care-based futures.

Mutual Aid & Collective Care

1. (Book) Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade

   A powerful guide to creating networks of care, solidarity, and survival outside of state and market systems.

2. (Video) Mutual Aid 101 By Dean Spade

   An accessible introduction to building mutual aid networks in your community.

3. (Social Network Group) Buffalo Mutual Aid Network Facebook Group

   A social action group for peer-to-peer organizing, humanitarian assistance, and reliable information sharing developed in response to the COVID-19 crisis.