This weekend, the Triangle’s first disability pride parade will be held in Durham. Disability Pride Parades are usually held across the country each summer to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which bans discrimination based on having a disability.
“There's so much more work left to do,” said Tatum Tricarico, who is blind and a co-organizer of the parade in Durham. “There are still people who are institutionalized as well as people who don't have the ability to live in the community like they want to, and so we gather every year for these Disability Pride Parades to celebrate our identity and our culture.”
Saturday's Disability Pride Parade will start at the Reality Ministries Center and end on Main Street. Following the parade, guest speakers will share remarks about living with disabilities.
Tricarico said the disability pride parade has helped highlight several things in the disabled community.
“It was a way to show that people with disabilities are proud of their identity,” she said. “And we are not disappointed in the fact that we are disabled, but we're proud of our community and history and the laws that we gained that support us.”