About Us

Our Mission

Disability Inclusion Society (DIS) is a grassroots, nonpartisan, Disability Rights Organization dedicated to:

  • Advocating for Disability Rights and Inclusion 
  • Empowering Disability Voices
  • Creating Disability Inclusive Spaces 
  • Celebrating Disability Culture and Identity

Disability Inclusion Society (DIS) promotes, supports and creates Disability inclusive platforms including:

  • Disability Rights Advocacy 
  • Political Advocacy 
  • Disability Culture and Inclusion Education 
  • Creative Arts and Expression 
  • Intersectional Anti-Ableism and Community Collaboration 

The Acronym

The terms “Disability” and “Disabled” are often viewed as negative or as unspoken taboos. Euphemisms such as “differently abled”, “special needs” or “mentally/physically challenged” are infantilizing and minimize or erase our identities and experiences. Disability Inclusion Society (DIS) is committed to embracing and empowering the identity and diversity of our community, the genuine experiences of our culture; the Disability Culture.

Our Logo

One of the most prominent symbols of Disability in the world is the International Symbol of Access: a stick person using a wheelchair. In designing our logo, DIS sought to use that recognition in a more organic and empowering depiction of Disability. Thus, the center of our logo features one of the most renowned Disabled figures in mythological antiquity, the Greek god Hephaestus sitting in his winged chair.

Many know Hephaestus for his role as the blacksmith god, craftsman of Olympus, but he is also the only god in Greek mythology to be noted as having a disability and to claim it. Many tellings go as far as to use ableist descriptions, like “deformed,” “lame,” and “imperfect.” Homeric texts describe Hephaestus as the son of the queen of Olympus, Hera, who cast him from the mountain of the gods upon seeing his disability — an apt metaphor for the everyday ableism that displaces many Disabled people from society. After falling for an entire day, Hephaestus landed in the sea where he was rescued by Thetis, the mother of Achilles, and would live among the sea nymphs while he perfected his craft in the belly of a volcano.

The Disabled god crafted his winged chair, a fleet of golden automatons, and many other famous objects in mythology before he finally created a throne so beautiful that Hera would be unable to resist it. Hephaestus offered this to his banisher, who predictably sat on the throne only to be trapped by invisible fetters. Once Hera was imprisoned, Hephaestus was able to reclaim his rightful place among his fellow deities, establish an elite workshop where he would smith metal for the greatest figures in mythological Greece, and most of all, find a sense of fellowship in the face of ableism.