Co-organized by 13 volunteer disabled activists from across the country, this biennial one day forum centers marginalized disabled people, and disabled people of color.
The Disability & Intersectionality Summit (DIS) is a biennial one-day conference that centers the experiences and knowledge of multiply marginalized disabled people such as, queer disabled people of color, undocumented transgender disabled people, or formerly incarcerated disabled people among others. This conference serves as a platform to highlight the multiple oppressions that shape the lived experiences of disabled individuals, as told by disabled people, in a setting organized by disabled activists. DIS aims to create dialogue on how our society must address systemic oppressions using an intersectional approach.
Our first summit was held in 2016, and a groundbreaking success! We were able to feature an all-disabled presenters program where a majority were disabled people of color, including those who are disabled and trans, formerly incarcerated, disabled and undocumented, among others. We had upwards of 100+ attendees as our in-person audience, and 15-20 others who tuned in via our livestream option. The topics ranged from mental health in Asian American community, to resources for disabled and undocumented folx, and kink & disability. The majority of the presentation were also filmed, and then uploaded to YouTube (with captions) to further amplify the content and provide greater access.
In 2018 the summit will be held on October 13th at MIT. We expect greater attendance, and our format will be to have concurrent sessions to allow a greater number of presenters. We seek cross-disability representation in our work and are partnering with Autism Women's Network as our fiscal intermediary - along with other national disability organizations. We project that our presenters will be of similar demographic as those in 2016 with majority being disabled people of color, and members of LGBTQ community.

What our grantee is saying: "Being a recipient of the Awesome Disability Award gets to the spirit of the Disability & Intersectionality Summit, an event organized by disabled activists for marginalized disabled people, and disabled people of color. Knowing that this award was decided upon by fellow members in the disability community makes me so proud, and further validates the necessity of supporting intersectional events centering lived-experiences of disability."

Image description: The image is the DIS logo which has the letters DIS in large block letters. The D is a light red, the I is a light orange, and the S is a light yellow. The D and S overlap a little with the I. And the phrase "disability intersectionality summit" underneath it in lowercase black.