[Image Description: An photo of Sophia’s face
and upper body. She has red hair and is wearing a black sweater] Source: Sophia
Kleanathous
Earlier this year, in the midst of a global pandemic, disabled and
chronically ill campaigner Sophia
Kleanthous (she/her) decided to take a big step to counter
the “lack of understanding of what disability really means.”
Across news and social media she saw many people advocating for a
societal response to the pandemic which would “leave vulnerable and disabled
people at home and let everyone else just live their lives.” This ignorance and
apathy towards disabled people is something Sophia has faced since university.
When she spoke with school friends about her disability “their responses were
to kind of sanction me” and they dismissively told her “not to go out.”
She says “it was almost like, when you have the label of being
disabled, or chronically ill, you shouldn't do anything. And you should just
forget about living.”
Sophia’s response to the recent growing ableism was to found Ableism and Me, an ambitious global campaign to raise awareness of everyday
ableism and fight for disability policy changes. Sophia, who is 28, is no
newcomer to campaigns. Her activism started during her time at university,
where she ran a campaign advocating for Syrian refugees, and extends into her
current professional life and volunteer involvement.
While this campaign is in its early stages, Sophia has big plans
for Ableism and Me. The organization is already moving fast and growing
globally, it currently includes people from the United States, Australia,
Nigeria, the United Kingdom and different parts of Europe.
[Image
Description: A colorful graphic that says “Ableism and Me Campaign. Challenging
Everyday Ableism. @the_chroniccampaigner”] Source.
A central part of the campaign, which Sophia hopes to kick off
within the next few months, will be collecting and sharing the experiences of
disabled people. Throughout our talk she repeatedly referenced the Everyday
Sexism Project as inspiration for her
work. This project was founded by British feminist Laura Bates in 2012 and
began “as a website where people could share their experiences of daily,
normalized sexism, from street harassment to workplace discrimination to sexual
assault and rape.” This provided a platform for women to share their
experiences and for others to gain a better understanding of what sexism looks
like in people’s daily lives.
Sophia is putting her
own twist on this testimony collecting activism model by “asking people to send
us their stories in any format they want. So, as a poem, or as a piece of art,
or anything they want, to not only show what ableism is and how often and
common it is, but also to show how skilled and talented the disability
community is.” She hopes to create a website to host the testimonies that the
campaign receives.
Currently, Ableism and
Me is focused on Instagram, a platform that Sophia only joined in the last six
months but where she has quickly grown to love and be inspired by the disabled
community. Sophia’s work joins a host of powerful disabled activists on
Instagram including Imani Barbarin (@crutches_and_spice) “a powerhouse of activism. [Who] is able to take a very
complicated policy issue that affects disabled people, and make it into such a
clear simple Tik Tok video or post”, Neha (@_endoaware_), Sophie, (@sophs_endo), Emma B (@emmanuewella) “who's doing some amazing work on how Black and disabled people
are treated, and her experience of medical racism“ (and whose educational
experience you can find here), and Imogen, (@chronicallyimogen), who “focuses on body image and taking away the stigma around
disability and sex.”
This online community
includes a diverse group of disabled activists, including POC, trans, and
non-binary disabled people, groups that “a lot of the time...get left out from
the disability conversation.” Seeking to address this issue, Ableism and Me
recently “did a Black History Month campaign on Black British disabled people
from history. And we're continuing that into November and December.” The series
features artwork by Junior (@yikesitsjr), a Black disabled activist who is volunteering for the
campaign.
[Image
Description: A drawing of professional Deaf dancer Chris Fonseca on a brown
background with his name written in white cursive] Source.
The campaign also
recently launched advisory committees on ableism and racism and ableism and
intersectionality, as well as three others on medical ableism; ableism on the
go; and work, education, and ableism. The work, education, and ableism
committee filled quickly, but the rest are continuing to accept members until
the end of December. Anyone interested should reach out on Instagram or by email.
The goal of the committees is to eventually look at potential
policy changes within each topic. The committees will also be holding virtual
focus groups open to anyone with a disability or chronic illness who wants to
share their experiences. Information about upcoming focus groups can be found
on Ableism and Me’s Instagram.
An important aspect of the advisory groups is that each “will have
a chair and a secretary. So they really will be a proper role. I really want to
have that so they can put it on a CV, they can improve their chances of
employability. And that's what this is all been about. It's all about creating
a community and improving that opportunity for disabled people.”