Introduction
Finding understanding and accepting community as a disabled and/or chronically ill person can be difficult. For organizers that acquire a disability due to state repression (e.g. at protests), systemic violence (e.g. unmitigated pandemics, chronic stress, environmental racism etc) or for a whole host of other reasons, becoming disabled means becoming part of a marginalized group, which creates disorienting barriers to spaces and relationships.
Disabled and/or chronically ill people are often isolated and/or face barriers to finding others who identify this way. This list was created to give folks a jumping off point to finding your people.
Because disability is intersectional, and because being marginalized increases one’s likelihood of developing a disability, many of these spaces also have sub-communities/spaces for LGBTQIAS+ disabled people and/or Black/Indigenous/POC disabled people to connect on the experiences they face as trans disabled, black disabled etc. individuals.
It is also helpful to find sub-communities of people who have the same/similar disabilities as you. However, we highly encourage branching out into communities that include people with many kinds of disabilities to avoid replicating the disability hierarchy, positions some disabilities as “worse” or more severe than others, and thus more deserving of stigma. It is important to understand that experiences of being disabled are extremely varied, both by intersecting identities and by the disabilities themselves.
If you have further suggestion to add to this list, please share them with us at kenzie@blueprintsfc.org.
1. People’s Hub Peopleshub.org / @peopleshub (instagram) – Hosts online spaces for disabled/chronically ill movement folks.
2. Disability Cultural Center – @disabilityculturalcenter (instagram) or dcc.page/links – Offers virtual events related to social justice, creativity and community care.
3. Calling up justice – callingupjustice.com /@callingupjusticenow (instagram) – Offers virtual events and spaces geared towards social justice, including weekly parallel spaces (helpful for those with minimal social capacity). Led by Black/Indigenous/POC.
4. Download the refresh connections app to meet covid safe community for virtual and/or in-person friendship and companionship.
5. Discord servers for community/ranting can be found on this website https://disboard.org/servers/tag/chronic-illness (try other tags like “disability” to), and are posted in communities such as r/ChronicIllness or r/Disabled on reddit.
6. New Disabled South is an organization in the US that hosts events on organizing. While some offerings are specific to the local context, many offerings are more broad. These are typically more learning and listening spaces opposed to spaces for direct connection and engagement.
Where this resource comes from
This list was compiled by GGSN coordinator Kenzie, who engages in virtual social justice movement and community care spaces regularly as a chronically ill and disabled person. This list will be updated as more online communities/activism spaces are shared with them/us. If you have further suggestion to add to this list, please share them with us at kenzie@blueprintsfc.org.
