{"id":95945,"date":"2025-07-27T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95945\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T05:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:34:13","slug":"hundreds-march-in-chicago-disability-pride-parade-that-celebrates-diversity-demands-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95945\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds march in Chicago Disability Pride Parade that celebrates diversity, demands accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

You wouldn\u2019t guess that Matt Keeth has a severe visual impairment from the way he skateboarded up and down Chicago\u2019s Disability Pride Parade in the Loop \u2014 if not for the red-and-white striped cane he rolls in front of him.<\/p>\n

Keeth, 31, a southern Idaho native, had always experienced a small degree of visual snow \u2014 like television static in the eyes \u2014 but three years ago, he woke up to the more extreme visual snow syndrome, a neurological condition in which visual snow is accompanied by other symptoms such as headaches, migraines and vertigo.<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Keeth, who is visually impaired, rides a skateboard with a rolling visual impairment cane during the Chicago Disability Pride Parade to celebrate National Disability Pride Day, July 26, 2025, in the Loop. Keeth is also a photographer and seeks to empower kids who have visual impairment. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

As a recent member of the disabled community, he has struggled with accepting his new limitations and finding a place where he feels welcome. \u201cWith my disorder, I don\u2019t really fit in a box with a large amount of the disability rights groups,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Disability Pride Parade was a way to represent my disability as well as have pride for disability groups as a whole, because there\u2019s almost a third of the population that is disabled, or potentially will be disabled, and it\u2019s a group that is ever-expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

On foot, with walkers, canes and crutches, in wheelchairs, power chairs, leg braces and scooters, hundreds of people of all ages and abilities made their way up Dearborn Street towards Daley Plaza for the longest-running parade of its kind, with 22 parades since its establishment in 2004. This year\u2019s theme was \u201c35 Years of ADA: Still Rising, Still Thriving!\u201d<\/p>\n

At Daley Plaza, marchers were met by dozens of tents set up by disability groups explaining their services and offerings to the community, as\u00a0well as live music and performances.<\/p>\n