Shining a light on disability in the Black community for Black History Month

CDC reports 1 in 4 Black adults have a disability

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Each February we celebrate Black History Month around the world. The WVU Center for Excellence in Disabilities (CED) encourages everyone to take this opportunity to learn more about the intersection of the Black and disability communities, and to advocate for more inclusive practices involving these populations.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 Black adults have a disability. Here in West Virginia, a Cornell University study showed that 14.2% of working-age Black adults report having a disability.

The video featured above is for an episode of Disability World, a podcast that shares information about all aspects of the disability community. In this episode, host Norma Stanley interviews Jane Dunhamn, founder of the National Black Disability Coalition, an organization whose mission is stated as "a response to the need for Blacks with disabilities to organize and assist each other around issues of mutual concern and use our collective strength to address disability issues in both the greater Black community and the greater disability community".

Additional Black History Month and disability resources:

• Why Black Disabled History Matters (World Institute on Disability)
• disABLED Black History (University of Pittsburgh)
• Black History Month and the Disability Rights Movement (Northeast Independent Living Program, Inc.)
• Black Disability History Month (Michigan State University)
• Black History Month: Honoring African Americans with Disabilities (Social Security Administration)
• Black Disability History: Past, Present & Future (American Association of People with Disabilities)