According to the Population Reference Bureau, 16% of Appalachians self-identify as disabled, higher than the national average. However, some advocates said that doesn’t capture the full scope.
“Sometimes, people confuse identifying as having a disability with receiving federal disability benefits payments. And because there is a stigma around that, there are a lot of folks that don’t want to claim the identity of disabled,” said Alexandria Knipp.
Alexandria Knipp with the Mountain Association works directly with fellow disabled Appalachians to empower their small businesses and creative practices. She is one of many people aiming to grow better livelihoods for themselves and other disabled people in the region.
Before that can come to fruition, advocates must paint a picture of what disability looks like in Appalachia, and what the Appalachian identity looks like when placed in the same frame as disabilities.
Mack Thompson, a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of Kentucky, said that was his goal in founding the Appalachian Symposium on Disability and Debility.
“Moving beyond, ‘oh no, this is a bad thing.’ How can we interrogate at the intersections of disability studies and Appalachian studies to create a more just future?” asked Thompson.
He said people in both groups support the idea that being a disabled Appalachian is an identity of its own.
“For people in Appalachia and for disabled people, as well as especially for people who are disabled in Appalachia,” said Thompson.
September’s inaugural event allowed people to speak from their personal experiences to define that intersecting identity. These people, on top of their shared experiences, are artists, academics, and cultural advocates.
Bailey Patterson is a student assistant at the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute, as well as a co-founder and host of the institute’s ‘Stigma-Silenced, Stories Spoken’ podcast, all about people experiencing stigmatized mental disabilities and disorders. It’s a form of academic and artistic expression for Patterson, she said, which is interwoven with her upbringing in eastern Kentucky.
“They’re all so intertwined. Being disabled and Appalachian really inform my creative practices. When I create podcasts, when I create theatre as an actor, I always bring who I am with me,” said Patterson.
Katrina Ward, a Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky, spoke at the symposium about her quilt-making. She uses it to express emotion from her disabled experience.
“Quilts live with their people and when their people are gone, the people who loved them are left with their quilts,” said Ward. “There is a long history of quilts being made and given in times of tragedy. A house fire, an individual death, or as something more collective, like the Names Project that created the AIDS memorial quilt.”
Ward echoed that the two identities are intertwined in the creative process, and life overall.
“Quilts, much like disability, live every piece of our lives with us.”
Every person who shares these two identities has a different life experience. But Alexandria Knipp with the Mountain Association said there’s a big commonality they share.
“Appalachians are very resilient,” said Knipp. “We’re resilient, and we’re creative.”
The figure of Appalachians with disabilities is plentiful, but still underrepresented. Mack Thompson said forming a sense of community is critical for these groups who are often spoken over or left unseen.
“Instead of like, ‘oh, we are having this conversation about people,’ people are having the conversations about and for themselves.”
More information about the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, including the Symposium on Disability and Debility, is available online.