It's a Wrap: Our 2022 Highlights

By Nidhi Jaisoor, Operations & Partnerships Strategy, Diversability®

Rectangular graphic on a gradient teal background. Text in navy blue, "Highlights from 2022. A reflection and celebration of the year with a recap, and a question. By Nidhi Jaisoor."

Image description: Rectangular graphic on a gradient teal background. Text in navy blue, "Highlights from 2022. A reflection and celebration of the year with a recap, and a question. By Nidhi Jaisoor."

As 2022 comes to an end, we at Diversability® want to reflect and thank you for being a part of our journey. 

With our mission of elevating disability pride, we work to create community, amplify disabled folks, highlight disability issues, and advocate for better inclusion. We do this through our communities, our content, and our events. Here are some numbers to recap the year: 

  • Our communities are 5,700+ members strong.

  • Our digital ecosystem grew from 66,000 at the start of the year to 78,000+ in December. We recently hit 10k followers on TikTok, and are getting close on LinkedIn. 

  • Our original Instagram guides and posts, created with an emphasis on education, advocacy, and awareness, reached 140k+ accounts over the year. 

  • We held 60+ events exclusively for our Diversability Leadership Collective members, including Masterclasses, Community Mixers, and Fireside Chats.

  • We saw the launch of the Frazier Fund, a mutual-aid effort by Diversability Leadership Collective (DLC) member Nico Meyering, and welcomed almost 30 members to the DLC with monthlong sponsored memberships.

  • We held 11 public Diversability® Unplugged events, our signature monthly virtual conversations on various topics through the lens of disability, that welcomed over 1,100 registered attendees. Four were held thanks to our partners: Fable, Blend, Ad Hoc, and RAMPD.

  • Our blog pieces were syndicated on MSN and Medium and were published in Thrive Global, Women Enabled International, Ability Magazine, and World Institute for Disability.

Diversability® Unplugged

We started the year with our January Diversability® Unplugged event on Disabled Entrepreneurship. We had a powerhouse panel on Disability in Fashion in February, followed by an important conversation on Disability Bias in Healthcare in March. We featured some amazing Down Syndrome Trailblazers in April. We celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May with a timely conversation on Digital Accessibility in partnership with Fable. 

We celebrated Black Music month in June by amplifying Disabled Black musicians in partnership with RAMPD. We also created a guide titled “Amplifying Black Disabled Musicians,” which became RAMPD’s highest engaging social media post.

We had an impactful conversation on Disability and Financial equity in partnership with Blend in August. Adaptive Sports was the topic of conversation at our September Unplugged event. October was National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), and we held a critical, galvanizing conversation in partnership with AdHoc about ableism at the workplace. 

We highlighted some amazing disabled NFT (non-fungible token) creators as part of our Disability in Web3 event. We ended the year on a powerful note, hosting a conversation on International Disability Advocacy to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

Follow us on social media @diversability or our Eventbrite to get updates on our 2023 dates and lineup. A huge thank you to all our speakers, attendees, and participants across these 11 Unplugged events for making them a huge success! 

The 2022 D-30 Disability Impact List

In celebration of Disability Pride Month in July, we honored 30 Disabled leaders making an impact around the globe with our 3rd annual 2022 D-30 Disability Impact List. We received 250 nominations for 125 incredible disabled leaders from 23 countries. We are incredibly grateful to our outstanding D-30 Selection Committee (and former D-30 honorees): Abha Khetarpal, Brittanie Richardson, Dom Kelly, Iregi Mwenja, Kudakwashe Dube, Natasha Graves, and Dr. Robbie Francis Watene.

We’re looking forward to our fourth D-30 Disability Impact List in 2023, with nominations set to open in spring 2023.  

Content

Throughout the year, we highlighted various aspects of disability, including rare diseases, disabled people in Ukraine, brain injury, limb differences, fibromyalgia, GAAD, Suicide prevention, and much more. We advocated for our disabled community in light of the CDC’s remarks, and our guide on the CDC and Eugenics had 10.5k impressions on Instagram alone. Our carousel in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month reached 14.6k+ accounts. 

Other Partnerships

We partnered with Bird and Stone for a “Disabled and Proud” campaign. Those gorgeous bracelets sold out within a month! We also carry our signature “Disability is not a bad word” merchandise year-round at our Threadless store. 

We also used our platform to serve as a marketing partner: The Shaping Disability Summit; Conferences for Women: Massachusetts, Texas, Pennsylvania, California; Check Your Privilege Conference; Health Advocacy Summit; Power The Polls; Senior and Disability Action; Power in Pride; Icon Summit; The Valuable 500; and The BodCon.

Would you like to help us elevate disability pride?

Partnering with us is a great way to put action behind your allyship. Get unprecedented brand exposure across an actively engaged audience of disabled folks and non-disabled allies. Partnering with us also helps support our 100% disabled team of 8. We offer a variety of sponsorship options customizable based on your needs: 

  • Join the conversation by partnering with us for Diversability Unplugged and amplify your brand on our marketing channels. 

  • Collaborate with us to create original content that gets your brand shared across our 78k+ and growing digital ecosystem.

  • Sponsor the 4th annual 2023 D-30 Disability Impact List. 

Email us now to start the conversation, or fill out our partnership interest form.

What about you? What were your 2022 highlights?

Diversability