In honor of Disability Pride Month, MooreUnity and the Rotary Club hosted the second annual Abilities Fest on July 10.
MooreUnity, a local nonprofit founded in 2017, embraces diversity and facilitates unity through programming, events and activities, and strives to make sure everyone in the community feels they belong.
“… Anything that might cause us to have division between us, we’re always looking for ways to bridge that gap and bring people together to find our commonalities,” said Karen Reiner, its co-founder and president. “ … We have a pretty large population in town of (people) who have disabilities who may not always feel included in the activities that we do, so … we wanted to find a way to celebrate (them) and learn from their experiences.”
Albert Gerhold Jr., instructor at the National Karate Institute – Moorestown, teaches a demonstration to a township resident during the Abilities Fest.
The fest’s activities included arts and crafts, story time, opportunities to meet and learn from people who read Braille or communicate with American Sign Language, who have a service dog, and are blind and use a white cane to walk. Live music, food trucks, demonstrations and lawn games were provided outside town hall, while quiet events were held inside the library for people who needed a break from the sensory overload of the festival.
Observed every July, Disability Pride Month recognizes the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law on July 26, 1990. More than one in four adults in the U.S. – more than 70 million – have a disability, according to the nonprofit The Arc, an organization that promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.
Disability Pride Month challenges the harmful idea that people with disabilities need to conform to norms to live meaningful lives.
