First Former Buddy Club President

[Image Description: The graphic is a collage of the Ecuador, Spain, and Mexico flags at the top and the Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Portugal flags at the bottom. "National Hispanic Heritage Month" is in center-aligned enlarged bold black text. "18 Notable Hispanic/Latinx People in the Disability Community from History" is in center-aligned bold black text below it. ] DISCLAIMER: All of the below photos are from Google Images. I do not take ownership for any of them. September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month. I proudly identify as a disabled white Hispanic woman who stutters with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS). Every year I honor observance days in honor of diverse groups by making time to make space for conversations and lived experiences that too often go unheard. Every year I hope that you hold the following key takeaways close: Disability is not separate from culture. Every disability journey is differen...

[Image Description: There is a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple infinity symbol lapel pin with "Define Normal" in center-aligned black text over a white background. The pin is attached to a dark blue and bright yellow lanyard.]      "You look normal to me." "People with disabilities are not normal people." "Disabled people do not live normal lives." What is a "normal person?" What does this even mean? This language is outdated because there is no such thing as being not normal. There is no such thing as looking disabled. Every individual in the disability community experiences their disabilities differently and not all disabilities are obvious. This comment is even worse when it is supposed to be perceived as a compliment. In fact, plenty of people in the disability community actually take referring to people outside of the disability community as "normal" in comparison to them insulting. I will speak freely that t...

[Image Description: The image has a light pink background with my First Former Buddy Club President logo in the bottom left corner. "This year's Disability Pride Month may be over  –– however, disability pride matters all year round." is in left-aligned bright pink text. "Disability pride is not just an opportunity to celebrate during one month per year. It is a mindset, movement, and commitment to showing up for the disability community every day." is also in left-aligned bright pink text below the previously described text. There are 7 diverse hands raised in solidarity. The first hand on the left has a medium dark skin color and is formed into a closed fist with a charcoal black, dark green, light blue, white, light yellow, dark red, charcoal black striped bracelet around its wrist. The second hand has a medium light skin color and is holding up a disability pride flag. The third hand is a prosthetic hand. The fourth hand has a light skin color and is formed ...

[Image Description: The image shows the updated disability pride flag with charcoal black, dark green, light blue, white, light yellow, dark red, charcoal black diagonal straight stripes on it. ] Happy Disability Pride Month! Last summer I learned about the history of the updated disability pride flag. Last year I created and posted an infographic about the history of the disability pride flag on Instagram and Facebook after finding out about the updated flag. On the second day of this year's Disability Pride Month, I created and posted another infographic about the history of the disability pride flag with more detail this time.  Many people still seem to not be aware of the existence of the disability pride flag.  Learning new things and educating people about unique important topics that they may not be aware of instead of immediately jumping to criticizing them are some things that I am passionate about.  Modeling embracing my mistakes, love for learning n...