#PressforProgress – Meet 7 women smashing it!

Alice Wong is a US-based activist who set up the Disability Visibility Project®. An online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. There’s a regular podcast, twitter chats, facebook group and a mountain of valuable information and ways to connect via the project. Alice is also a co-partner in two projects: DisabledWriters.com, a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, and #CripTheVote, a nonpartisan online movement encouraging the political participation of disabled people.

Image description: A person using a breathing aid is pictured from the chest up in front of a graffitied wall. 

Carly Findlay is a blogger, writer, speaker and appearance activist. She challenges people’s thinking about what it’s like to have a visibly different appearance. (We’ve taken those lines directly from her blog because her writing is much better than ours!) Living the personal is political, she doesn’t shy away from opportunities to create change. Plus she staunchly advocates for people with disability to be paid what they are worth! As a result, her profile has been steadily on the rise over the last few years. She’s a popular media commentator, is currently penning an autobiographical book and is working as the Inclusion Coordinator for Melbourne Fringe. You can follow her adventures on twitter.

Image description: A person with red skin is standing in front of a brick wall is pictured from the waist up. 

As the founders of @wearedisabled Julia and @cinnamaldehyde have given voice to many people with disability. Set up in 2017, @wearedisabled is a rotating twitter account and the platform is used to give people with disabilities around the world the opportunity to tell their own stories and share a week in their lives. Why? Because for too long, “our narratives have been told by everyone except us. @WeAreDisabled wants to help change that by adding to the growing list of outlets giving disabled people a voice”. Check out the stories of current and past hosts, or even better sign up to be the next guest host here.

Image description: A person wearing glasses and a flower in their dark hair is pictured close up and smiling while looking to the right of the screen. 

El is an Australian writer and a self-proclaimed “grumpy policy wonk wanting to be optimistic”.  When she’s not working in her day job as a Communications and Media advisor, she pens a range or articles on disability and social justice issues and volunteers as a presenter on community radio. She tweets under the pen name @bluntshovels  and is not afraid of calling out bullshit when she sees it – “Being on the dole, or the disability pension, or getting any other kind of social security payment doesn’t suddenly turn people into someone different from everyone else.” Head to her blog for her latest articles and quips.

Image description: A person wearing glasses is sitting on the edge of a couch and smiling at the camera. 

Michaela aka @Ogrefairy on twitter is a freelance digital artist hailing from Florida in the US. In her own words she is a 27 year old cripple, crazy, queer, chronically ill, disabled digital artist who is just trying my best. She creates beautiful and contemporary art works of people, many who identify as having a disability. Check out her stunning range of commissions as part of Cripple Punk, a movement of disabled people embracing themselves in spite of the society that tells them it’s wrong.

https://ogrefairy.artstation.com

Image description: A cartoon of a person using a wheelchair and holding their right hand in a peace sign. They are wearing a T-shirt that says "the future is accessibile". 

A dynamo on screen and stage, US actress Jamie Brewer has also become an advocate for inclusion in the film and TV industries. With a swag of roles to her credit including American Horror Show and Amy and the Orphans, this actress with Down Syndrome is leading the way in authentic and diverse casting. Plus she stars in the award-winning Australian short film Kill Off – produced by Bus Stop Films. It’s the story of a woman with intellectual disability becoming friends with an African refugee via a mutual love of street dance.

View Jamie’s work in the Kill Off trailer here.

Image description: A person with Down Syndrome is pictured close up and smiling. They are wearing makeup and are in professional attire.