“Breaking Silence” by Alice Doyle

The universe honours brave.

Today, if you share who you are,

the costs of disability,

the costs of exclusion

or the barriers to your employment 

for the first time, 

the second or the tenth,

we will witness your courage

and hear your words.

Being who we are

in a an ever tightening 

neuronormative world

is living courage.

There are so many people,

spaces and places that seek

to diminish our unique voices,

to control and define the boundaries 

in which we exist,

the way in which we live,

to determine the limits of our needs,

the level of supports,

the finance available or lack thereof,

the levels of accessibility

that could enable us

or disable us to participate

fully and easily in all parts of life.

We are women.

We are disabled women

and non-binary people.

Our needs matter.

Our autonomy matters.

We can determine our own truth.

If or when we need support, we can ask.

Supports need to meet us where we are.

They need to be appropriate, timely, 

available and easily accessible.

Let us name the supports we need.

Let us speak about 

the cost of disability and gender,

about parenting, disability and gender

about enabling financial independence 

for disabled women and non-binary people.

Let us share our lived experiences,

name the obstacles we meet,

the systemic barriers,

the infringements on our liberty,

the fences we must climb 

or tear down just to be.

Let us name the everyday invisible sufferings,

the tasks that challenge us,

the barriers that fence us out 

of employment and of full participation in life.

Let us name the words that harm us,

gaslight us and reduce our beings 

to depersonalised, voiceless statistics.

For in silence, we suffer invisibly.

So, let us name the effects of poverty 

and the opportunities for change.

For when named, 

we see them more clearly. 

And when seen,

a new beginning becomes possible,

change becomes imaginable 

and a different future 

can be envisioned for all.