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Three cheers for the Disability Visibility Project! Now you can cheer for the DVP and cheer them on every month by signing up for regular donations on Patreon. It could be as little $1 a month. Or you can become a Top Cat (illustrated on their page by, of course, a cat in a top hat), and sign up to give $100 a month. Anything in between is gratefully accepted too!
So why donate and support DVP? This is a community, storytelling and sharing project, and a movement founded and led by a disabled woman of color, Alice Wong. So we know right off this isn’t your same-old same-old white, non-disabled led charity where fundraising is all about making you cry till you take out your wallet. With that type of fundraising, there’s two big risks I think of. First off, you might be so moved when you donate that you cry on your dollar bills, and then they get wrinkly. Who wants to use wrinkly money? Second, you can fall into doing what people have done for ages. And that is to think of disabled people as little more than recipients of your money, your help, and your pity. Some people find it hard to imagine my beloved crip family as whole, dynamic, diverse, fabulous, and innovative people (or even as people with lives worth living: See the film of the same name).
Alice ensures that the articles, stories, and media are accessible and coming from a range of perspectives and identities, thoughtful critiques coming directly from the people with real lived experiences of disability, community, and work for social justice. In fact, you can go right to the DVP blog to read what activists and advocates say about why it’s so needed and beloved.
Remember when I interviewed Aimee Elber in honor of the DVP’s partnership with StoryCorps? Or what about that time I went to San Francisco just to sit in the StoryCorp recording pod and collect some oral history from Lavaun Benavidez-Heaster? So cool to have a platform to share it where disabled and non-disabled people alike can enjoy and learn from the stories.
A few reasons to give might be that you
- Are hungry for stories, art, and culture from a different perspective
- Want to challenge your beliefs and open your mind to new ideas
- Are committed to equity, social change, and accessibility
Now is your chance to be a regular supporter of the DVP by becoming a patron on Patreon. So far, it’s been an all-volunteer effort. It’s time to change that and bring money in to keep up with things like transcriptions, captions, and all the other pieces needed for equitable storytelling.
For more info, stories, conversations, and all around crip-beautiful fabulousness, there’s a lot of places you can find DVP online.
Website: disabilityvisi
Facebook: facebook
Twitter: @DisVisibility