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The world's largest minority is speaking out. This is what they have to say.

World, meet disability Twitter.

Twitter has done some incredible things for diversity during the past few years.

It helped raise awareness for Black Lives Matter leaders like DeRay McKesson (who is now running for mayor in Baltimore). New feminist icons like Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer use Twitter as a tool to lend support to progressive movements, campaigns, and ideas.

Now, another minority group — the largest in the world, in fact — is raising their voice, too. World, meet disability Twitter.

1 in 5 people live with disabilities, but somehow the voices of disability advocacy still have yet to be heard around the world — mostly because folks aren't aware the community exists!

Photo courtesy of Hanna Agar, from "Life Is Like."

When you think about it, it’s easy to understand why folks with disabilities are frequently forgotten and ignored: Society teaches us certain rules about how to interact with folks who are disabled. Primarily, we’re taught from a young age that we’re not supposed to stare. And a reflex response to being told "don’t stare" is to look away.

Conversations about living with disability are important, especially because disability probably affects you or someone you know personally.

One way to join those conversations is to follow these nine folks — along with many others not mentioned here! — who are using Twitter to introduce you to disability rights in a really smart way.

1. Alice Wong — @SFdirewolf

Alice Wong is the founder of the Disability Visibility Project, a community partnership with StoryCorps and an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability stories and culture. She's a co-partner in #CripTheVote, a nonpartisan social media campaign encouraging civic engagement of people with disabilities during the 2016 presidential election.

2. Andraea LaVant — @andraealavant

Andraea LaVant is an inclusion senior specialist for the Girl Scouts who spoke on behalf of women with disabilities as part of President Obama’s Disability Roundtable. On Twitter, she is a lifestyle and fashion blogger.

3. Dominick Evans— @dominickevans

Dominick Evans is a filmmaker and human rights activist with an interest in representations of disability and LGBT in the media.

4. David Perry— @lollardfish

David Perry is a journalist who focuses on disability rights. His work can be found in Al Jazeera, The New York Times, The Atlantic and others.

5. Gregg Beratan— @GreggBeratan

Gregg Beratan is a disability activist, frequently on the forefront of Twitter campaigns. His feed is currently filled with #CripTheVote, a hashtag that aims to bring disability to the forefront of the 2016 presidential conversation.

6. Rebecca Cokley— @RebeccaCokley

Rebecca Cokley is a second-generation disability rights activist and the executive director of the National Council on Disability.

7. Sara Hendren— @ablerism

Sara Hendren is an artist who teaches design to engineers. Her interest is in adaptive and assistive technologies. Sara is best known for the Accessible Icon Project, where she reimagined the International Symbol of Access.

8. Leroy Moore— @kriphopnation

Leroy Moore is the founder of Krip-Hop Nation, whose mission is to educate the public, the music industry, and the media about the talents, history, rights, and marketability of hip-hop artists and other musicians with disabilities. He is also a member of the National Black Disability Coalition and a writer for Poor Magazine.

9. Kim Sauder— @crippledscholar

Kim Sauder is a Ph.D. candidate in disability studies who is passionate about disability rights, activism advocacy, and scholarship with a focus on disability representation in the media.

While compiling this list, I realized something amazing: Nearly every person on this list follows every other person on it.

The disability community is tight-knit, supportive, and diverse. Each of us has different interests and passions, but one thing we all have in common is that we support one another, and we are dedicated to growing our visibility.


We’re still finding our voice, but we're well on our way.

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