Disability Belongs™: A New Era for Our Organization

by Shelly Christensen

We have some exciting news to share with you! Our organization is committed to creating a community where people with disabilities can thrive and achieve their goals. We want everyone to feel like they belong. That's why we are rebranding from RespectAbility to Disability Belongs™ after a year-long process that included input from our staff, board, program alumni, partners, and the broader disability community.

“We are proud to be a disability-led organization and, to reflect that, we wanted the word ‘disability’ in our name,” explained Ariel Simms, President and CEO of Disability Belongs™. “We also felt strongly that our new name should be a statement of our core belief: that we belong in all aspects of society.”

Using disability in our name was paramount for us. We chose to incorporate the word "disability" into our name to help remove the stigmas associated with the term. While celebrating abilities is crucial, it's also important to recognize and respect the overlap and intersections of human experiences, and disability is a part of that.  We are a disability-led organization, and we are not afraid of saying we are disabled. Disability is a natural part of our shared human experience. And more than that, it’s something that can be celebrated. The work we do here is really to demand that disability belongs everywhere. Negativity doesn’t have to be synonymous with the word disability.  

Our logo was something that represented who we are as well. The organic shapes overlapping is a nod to disability as one identity that intersects with many others. Disability overlaps with every race, religion, sexuality, political affiliation, and everything in between. The abstract, droplet-like shapes could be interpreted in multiple ways, including as markers on a map representing places where disability belongs, or as speech balloons representing the conversations our organization fosters.

Along with our new name Disability Belongs™ comes a clarified theory of change, the components of which are represented in the new tagline: “Redefining Narratives. Developing Leaders. Driving Opportunity.”

• Redefining Narratives: We challenge stigma and amplify authentic narratives on disability – nothing about us, without us!

• Developing Leaders: We model training and empowering the next generation of leaders in disability advocacy across our pillars.

• Driving Opportunity: We take down barriers to education, employment, and civic life to enable disabled individuals to lead lives of their choosing.

The core programmatic areas of our organization are not changing with the new brand:

• Entertainment and News Media – Increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people in media so people with disabilities are seen for what they can do, instead of what they cannot.

• Leadership and Workforce Development – Enable diverse people with disabilities to participate fully in decision-making.

• Policy and Civic Engagement – Promote best practices in education, employment, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and access.

• Faith Inclusion and Belonging – Ensure people with disabilities and those who love them to participate fully, contributing their gifts, strengths, and talents in all aspects of their chosen faith community.  

You can follow Disability Belongs™ on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @DisabilityBelongs. Our organization’s existing website will be accessible from www.DisabilityBelongs.org. Later this year, we will launch an entirely new website that reflects the new brand ethos of our organization.

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Shelly Christensen, MA FAAIDD, is Disability Belongs’s Senior Director of Faith Inclusion and Belonging and co-founder of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). Learn about her publications here.