Disability Culture Lab (DCL) launched in June 2024 as the first-ever disability media and narrative lab. Its mission is to “shift the narrative on disability from fear and pity to solidarity and liberation” – which it seeks to do by not only changing what stories are being told about the disabled community but also who’s telling them.

“The reality is that most stories told about disabled people are told by non-disabled people,” said Founder and Executive Director Meier Galblum Haigh. “They’re about us without us, and that’s on TV and in the media and in the news. The result of that is a lot of stereotypes and a lot of very harmful stories that often lead to folks feeling like they are not enough.”

Galblum Haigh says ableism and decades of under-resourcing of disabled movements have prevented disabled people from “telling stories on our terms”, which is what led them to create the Disability Culture Lab and build a strategic communications infrastructure that is by and for the disability community and rooted in disability justice. The need for this work is even more important in the current moment.

“We have Elon Musk, the richest man in the world using the R-word, with control over all of our government resources,” Galblum Haigh said. “We have the now president sitting in the White House using the R-word. We’ve got folks losing their jobs because they’re disabled, because people say they were DEI hires. We’ve got mass firings just like many other communities are facing in this moment, the trans community, Black and Brown folks.”

To help disabled coalitions meet this moment and those to come, the Disability Culture Lab team provides strategic communications support and guides them in North Star visioning. The organization has also pursued strategic partnerships across movements to support narrative shift work on issues ranging from climate change to worker organizing. And later this spring, DCL will begin accepting applications for Disability Rising, a new year-long, wraparound fellowship to support the development of multi-marginalized rising disability leaders that includes media training and coaching.

Another recent effort for Disability Culture Lab was the launch of its online store with merchandise that focuses on the “power of disability community and disabled joy.” The store features collaborations with disabled artists as DCL seeks to provide them with pathways to financial security.

“You can’t have joy and liberation without art and beauty, and you can’t have community without art and disabled artists,” said Galblum Haigh. “We don’t see the merch store as items to be sold or a fundraising platform. We see it as community building around art and fashion, and it’s just one facet of culture change work. Disabled artists are a core part of shifting the narrative on disability and community building.”

Visit Disability Culture Lab’s website to learn more about the organization’s work and to follow them on social media.