Disability Action Month 2025

Until Next Year...

Thank you for joining us for our second annual Disability Action Month! The call for planning committee members for the 2026 Disability Action Month will go out in April 2026. If you have any questions, please email disability.outreach@wwu.edu.

Image Description: Banner for Disability Action Month. Graphic has light blue background. The text, in white, reads, "Disability Action Month" and, in all-caps, "15th Anniversary of the Disability Outreach Center." In the bottom right corner is the DOC logo and the WWU logo.

Disability Action Month is Western Washington University’s month-long celebration of our disabled community. Throughout October, the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center, in collaboration with campus partners including the Institute for Critical Disability Studies and Blue Resource Center, will have a variety of events and programs for students, faculty, and staff. We invite everyone to celebrate our disabled community and continue to learn about the issues we face and how we can make Western and the rest of the world a more accessible place. This year we will be celebrating the Disability Outreach Center's 15th anniversary!

Events

Tuesday, September 30 | 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Flag Plaza & KB 122 | WIN Event Listing

To kick off the celebration of October as Disability Action Month, join the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center for a raising of the visually safe Disability Pride flag on Tuesday, September 30 at 4:30 PM at Flag Plaza. After raising the flag, we will move to Kaiser Borsari Hall Meeting Room 122 at 5:00 PM to socialize and share some food.

Accessibility Information:
WWU Flag Plaza is on South Campus Drive located between Wade King Student Recreation Center and the Academic Institutional West building. Standard-height armless chairs with a backrest will be provided as a seating option at Flag Plaza. 

KB 122 is in Kaiser Borsari Hall. Kaiser Borsari Hall is on East College Way located between the Communications Facility building and Sehome Arboretum. It is about 0.2 miles from Flag Plaza to Kaiser Borsari Hall. Kaiser Borsari Hall is an ADA accessible building. The north and south entrances have automatic door openers. Standard-height armless chairs with a backrest will be the primary seating option provided at KB 122 in addition to a few bar-height armless chairs with backrests. Kaiser Borsari Hall has accessible restrooms. All restrooms in this building are all-gender restrooms.

Seating information is accurate to the best of our ability but subject to change.

There will be an air purifier that has four-stage hospital-type filtration with a true HEPA filter inside in KB 122.

Thursday, October 9 | 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM | Viking Union Underground Coffee House | WIN Event Listing

Join the Disability Access Center, Disability Outreach Center, and Blue Resource Center for a screening and discussion of the documentary unseen on Thursday, October 9 from 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM in the Viking Union Underground Coffee House!

About unseen:
As a blind, undocumented immigrant, Pedro faces uncertainty to obtain his college degree, become a social worker, and support his family. Through experimental cinematography and sound, unseen reimagines the accessibility of cinema, while exploring the intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.

Accessibility Information:
The Underground Coffee House is in the Viking Union on the 3rd floor. Viking Union is an ADA accessible building. Button activated entrances are located on the southeast side and northwest side of the building near Garden Street. Elevators provide access to all levels.

The Underground Coffee House has a variety of seating including chairs, high-top seats, couch seating, and booth seating. Seating information is accurate to the best of our ability but subject to change.

ADA accessible and all-gender bathrooms are located on the 3rd floor (VU 714 are all-gender and ADA accessible and VU 351 and 353 are all-gender) and the 7th floor (VU 714 and 717 are ADA accessible and all-gender and VU 715 and 716 are all-gender).

There is a quiet Meditation Room on the 7th floor of the VU.

There will be an air purifier that has four-stage hospital-type filtration with a true HEPA filter inside in the VU UGCH.

Friday, October 17 | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Academic West 302 | WIN Event Listing

Join the Institute for Critical Disability Studies, Disability Access Center, and Disability Outreach Center for a keynote lecture and reception to launch UnConference! The keynote will run from 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM with a reception to follow.

Keynote Lecture: Disability in Place: Unmaking as Practice
From 2021 to early 2025, the National Parks Service and the National Council on Public History fostered the creation of an interdisciplinary anthology of place-based disability history. Then, on the verge of its completion, the politics of our moment unmade it.

Join editor Dr. Kathleen Brian to discuss the life and lives of Disability and Place, the first accessibly written, peer reviewed work to address historical intersections of disability and place, forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press.

The UnConference is a two-day workshop focused on disability issues that matter in the community. The days are themed:

Day 1 is devoted to discussing disability-related problems or opportunities in our local communities.
Day 2 is devoted to workshopping project ideas and developing authentic attempts to solve the problems you identified in day 1. The final workshop end in an open working session with all UnConference participants.

Accessibility Information:
AW 302 is in Academic Instructional Center West. Academic Instructional Center West is an ADA accessible building. Button activated entrances are located at the east and west sides of the building. The central elevator provides access to all floors and the 4th floor sky-bridge provides access to the AI.

AW 302 typically has standard height rolling chairs without arm rests. Seating information is accurate to the best of our ability but subject to change.

Accessible restrooms are located on all floors and all gender restrooms in AW 411. There are lactation room and changing rooms on floors 2-4.

Thursday, October 23 | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM | Multicultural Center Multi-Use Room (Viking Union 735) | WIN Event Listing

Join the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center for a panel discussion on the history of disability civil rights law implementation on campus, the first disability-related club at WWU, the founding of the Disability Outreach Center, and its history over the past 15 years!

Accessibility Information:
The Multicultural Center Multi-Use Room (VU 735) is in the Viking Union. Viking Union is an ADA accessible building. Button activated entrances are located on the southeast side and northwest side of the building near Garden Street. Elevators provide access to all levels.

VU 735 typically has standard height chairs with fixed arm rests. Seating information is accurate to the best of our ability but subject to change.

ADA accessible and all-gender bathrooms are located on the 3rd floor (VU 714 are all-gender and ADA accessible and VU 351 and 353 are all-gender) and the 7th floor (VU 714 and 717 are ADA accessible and all-gender and VU 715 and 716 are all-gender).

There is a quiet Meditation Room on the 7th floor of the VU.

This event will have an air purifier that has four-stage hospital-type filtration with a true HEPA filter.

Thursday, October 29 | 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Disability Outreach Center (Wilson Library 165) | WIN Event Listing

It's the Disability Outreach Center's 15th anniversary so we are throwing a birthday party! Join the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center for cake (including traditional, vegan, and gluten free), 2010s music, and celebration. Dress up like it's 2010 and drop by!

Accessibility Information:
The DOC is on the ground floor of Wilson Library. Wilson Library is an ADA accessible building. The accessible entrance to the DOC is through the external door west of the skybridge that connects Wilson Library and Haggard Hall. There is signage for the Disability Access Center, the Disability Outreach Center, and lecture hall WL 164.

There is a variety of seating in the DOC including armless chairs, desk chairs, and couches.

This building has an accessible and all-gender restroom around the corner from the DOC in WL 165A. Additional all-gender bathrooms are in WL 182 (ADA accessible), WL 668, and WL 669. The accessible all-gender restroom in WL 165A has free menstrual products. Wilson Library has a changing room on the 1st Floor in WL-182C (Women's restroom) and a lactation room on the 3rd Floor in WL-367B (women's restroom).

This event will have an air purifier that has four-stage hospital-type filtration with a true HEPA filter.

Event Locations

Accessibility Information

AA/EO. Accessibility Statement: These events are intended for all participants including those with apparent or non-apparent disabilities. For disability accommodation(s) (such as ASL interpretation or TypeWell transcription), please contact disability.outreach@wwu.edu. Advanced notice is appreciated and sometimes necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Masks are strongly encouraged at these events. KN95 masks are available at the door and upon request. All indoor events will have an air purifier that has four-stage hospital-type filtration with a true HEPA filter.

Please refrain from wearing scented products such as perfume, cologne, and fragrant personal care products while at these events as they can trigger serious health issues for those with fragrance allergies and/or chemical sensitivities. For more information, please visit Accessible Spaces: A Fragrance-Free Toolkit.

Parking is available after 4:30 PM at no cost in the C, 12G, 27R, and Lincoln Creek lots.

For information about visitor parking, please visit the Transportation Services Visitors page. For information about accessible parking spots, please visit the Transportation Services Disability Access page.

Please refer to the Campus Accessibility Map for information about the nearest accessible doors, elevators, walkways, routes, and parking spots.

Co-Sponsors

Planning Committee

Axel Cichocki, Disability Access Center & Disability Outreach Center
Oscar Hastings, Disability Outreach Center
Sebastian Smith, Disability Outreach Center
Ella Newborn, alumnus
Caitlin Millard, Resident Director
brooklyn lindsey-taylor, student

Resources

Disability Action Month is Western Washington University’s month-long celebration of our disabled community. Throughout October, the Disability Access Center and Disability Outreach Center, in collaboration with campus partners, have a variety of events and programs for students, faculty, and staff. We invite everyone to celebrate our disabled community and continue to learn about the issues we face and how we can make Western and the rest of the world a more accessible place.

Disability Action Month recognizes the multitude of different disability-related awareness months, weeks, and days in October including:

National Disability Employment Awareness Month
National Disability History Month
ADHD Awareness Month
Depression Education and Awareness Month
Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Dwarfism Awareness Month
Dysautonomia Awareness Month
Dyslexia Awareness Month
Learning Disability Awareness Month
Raynaud’s Awareness Month
Rett Syndrome Awareness Month
Selective Mutism Awareness Month
Spina Bifida Awareness Month
Non-Apparent Disabilities Week (Third full week of October)
Disability Mentoring Days (Third Wednesday of October)
World Cerebral Palsy Day (October 6)
World Sight Day (October 10)
World Mental Health Day (October 10)
Blind Americans Equity Day (White Cane Day) (October 15)
International Stuttering Awareness Day (October 22)
World Polio Day (October 24)
World Stroke Day (October 29)

2007: Students for Disability Awareness club founded by Daman Wandke and Brittany Otter
2010: AS DOC opens
2022: DOC becomes a program of the DAC and moves to Wilson Library 165
2023-2024: Launch of DisCo (Disability Community) Graduation
2024 - 2025: Launch of Disability Pride Month, DisOrientation, Disability Action Month, Autism and Neurodivergence Celebration Month, DisCo Graduation and Awards Celebration, and Disabled Peer Mentorship Program
2025 - 2026: 15th anniversary of the DOC, launch of first full year cohort of the Disabled Peer Mentorship Program, launch of Disability Day of Mourning

In October 2025, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), an annual recognition of the positive impact of people with disabilities in the American workforce. This yearly event began in 1945 as a weeklong national observance of the contributions of people with physical disabilities. In 1988, Congress designated the commemoration as NDEAM, which then evolved to acknowledge the importance of increasing opportunities for people with disabilities, including those with mental health conditions and other nonobvious disabilities, in the workforce. In 2001, ODEP was created and entrusted to administer NDEAM, including the selection and promotion of its annual theme.

This year’s theme for NDEAM: “Celebrating Value and Talent.”

Image Description: Poster for National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2025. Text reads, "Celebrating Value and Talent, National Disability Employment Awareness Month." At the bottom are the America 250 logo, the Department of Labor seal, followed by the Words "Office of Disability Employment Policy, United States Department of Labor" and #NDEAM, 80th Anniversary, and dol.gov/odep.

NDEAM Posters:

The Disability Pride Flag, designed by Ann Magill, a writer with cerebral palsy, is the symbol of the disability pride movement. The original Disability Pride Flag, which featured brightly colored zigzagging stripes over a black background, was created by Ann Magill in 2019. Ann Magill had “attended an event for the 20th anniversary of the ADA and was disappointed that it was confined to the basement and grounds of an independent living center — instead of out in public. The experience motivated her to create a Disability Pride Flag” (Columbia University, 2023). As she explained in an interview on The Accessible Stall podcast, "My first design idea was to make the stripes zigzag, to represent how disabled people have to maneuver around all the barriers we face. We have to go this way and then we have to go that way, and then we have to go this way and then we have to go that way. And that’s how we move through the world."

However, it came to Ann Magill's attention that “when viewed on a phone or computer screen, the design was causing symptoms for individuals with visually triggered disabilities including seizure and migraine disorders” (Ballard, 2023). The redesigned version of the flag, created by Ann Magill in 2021 in collaboration with several people with visually triggered disabilities, softens the colors and made the stripes straight instead of zigzagging. The order of the stripes was also changed to accommodate people with red-green colorblindness (Magill, 2022).

The visually safe Disability Pride Flag features a muted black background with a diagonal band from the top left to bottom right corner, made up of five parallel stripes in red, gold, white, blue, and green. Each element of the flag carries meaning for the disabled community:

Faded Black Background: Represents "the anger and mourning over the eugenics and the neglect that disabled people have to fight against,"
Six "Standard" Flag Colors: Represents that the disabled community “is pan-national, spanning borders between states and nations,”
Red Stripe: Represents physical disabilities,
Gold Stripe: Represents neurodivergence,
White Stripe: Represents non-apparent disabilities and undiagnosed disabilities,
Blue Stripe: Represents emotional and psychiatric disabilities,
Green Stripe: Represents sensory disabilities, including d/Deafness, blindness, lack of smell, lack of taste, audio processing disorder, and all other sensory disabilities (Magill, 2022).