Michael Hanscom

Enthusiastic ambivert. Geeky, liberal, friendly, curious, hopepunk; trying to be a good person. (he/him)

Disability Pride Flag

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While we’re just halfway through Pride month, July is Disability Pride Month, and in preparation for this year, I’ve created a high resolution version of Ann Magill’s Disability Pride Flag, which she released into the public domain. I have also created a brighter variant that may be more suitable in some situations.

A muted black field with a diagonal stripe running from the top left to bottom right in muted green, blue, white, yellow, and red.

You can snag the images from this blog post, or you can download the 175 KB Disability Pride Flag .zip file, which includes both the standard and bright variants as high-resolution (2000×3000 pixel) .png, .svg, and .pdf files, along with the Affinity Designer source files I created.

A black field with a diagonal stripe running from the top left to bottom right in green, blue, white, yellow, and red.

An explanation of the design and the meaning of the colors, from Ann:

I and several people with visually triggered disabilities (some of whom wished to remain anonymous) have collaborated to come up with this new design, shown above. The colors have been muted and rearranged to reduce eye strain, and each stripe also has a slightly different level of brightness (brightest in the center and darkening outward), so that even those with some form of color blindness can distinguish the stripes.

And in case you’re wondering, here’s the flag’s symbolism:

Having All Six “Standard” Flag Colors: signifying that Disability Community is pan-national, spanning borders between states and nations.

The Black Field: Mourning and rage for victims of ableist violence and abuse

The Diagonal Band: “Cutting across” the walls and barriers that separate the disabled from normate society, also light and creativity cutting through the darkness

The White Stripe: Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities

The Red Stripe: Physical Disabilities

The Gold Stripe: Neurodivergence

The Blue Stripe: Psychiatric Disabilities

The Green Stripe: Sensory Disabilities

Download link: DisabilityPrideFlag.zip (175 KB)

Year 50 Day 44

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A wide angle selfie of me wearing a Highline College t-shirt standing under an archway of balloons in the Highline blue and green colors.

Day 44: Congratulations to all of Highline’s graduates! We helped with setup this morning, handed out yard signs and did some tabling in the afternoon, and had a really good day celebrating this year’s graduating class.

Year 50 Day 43

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A black and white selfie of me with a slight smirk.

Day 43: Yes, this is absolutely a “didn’t take a photo earlier, so I’m playing with filters in a desperate attempt to make the photo slightly interesting” day. It happens!

Year 50 Day 42

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Me in the college library, standing next to a skeleton wearing a graduation cap.

Day 42: I couldn’t resist grabbing a photo with this graduation celebrant. Okay, so maybe they took a little longer to get through than some, but diplomas don’t have a time limit, right?

Year 50 Day 40

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Me standing in my living room, with shelves of books visible behind me. I'm wearing a black t-shirt with a graphic of an astronaut spray-painting a happy face smile on the moon.

Day 40: As hoped and expected, a night out dancing at the club has done wonders to loosen up those tight muscles. Aggressive dancing for the win! Also, I really like this shirt we found while shopping yesterday morning.

Year 50 Day 39

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A wide-angle shot of me sitting in a dark club, lit entirely in red. I’m wearing a black cap, black mask, and black t-shirt with a Mickey Mouse and Predator mashup.

Day 39: Back out at the Mercury! As usual, here nice and early to watch people make their way in and occasionally take advantage of an almost empty dance floor. This has always been my preferred way to hit the clubs; fashionably late has never been my style.

Year 50 Day 38

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Me outside on a street freshly wet with rain, wearing a black hoodie over a black button-up shirt with a print of yellow rubber duckies.

Day 38: After a few warm days, with more on the horizon, a couple cool, grey, drizzly days are very welcome. And my rubber duckie shirt just seemed appropriate.

Year 50 Day 37

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Me on an upper level of the school’s student union building; below me are a number of round tables with students and family members sitting and talking.

Day 37: Stayed late on campus to celebrate our Achieve program students’ graduations. They’re a great bunch of people, and it was fun to see them present their accomplishments. Though I will admit that fifteen hours on campus makes for a very long day.

Year 50 Day 36

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Me standing outside in front of an old building with a curved and sloped roof that looks vaguely like a turtle's shell.

Day 36: One of the things I like about working on an older campus is the very of-its-time funky architecture that still survives. The building behind me here is a lecture hall, often nicknamed the “turtle”.