Luciana Viegas

A peach gradient background with navy text has “The D-30 Disability Impact List” at the top centered above “2022 Honoree” which is in between two laurels. The words “Luciana Viegas she/her/hers Brazil” is to the left of a picture of Luciana, which fills the right. Luciana is a black woman with dreadlocks wearing makeup and a striped shirt in brown tones. At the bottom, “Diversability, #D30DisList.” fills the left corner.

Luciana Viegas (She/her/hers)

Autistic activist, mother of an autistic child and black woman creator of the movement Black Disabled Lives Matter Brazil

Brazil

Luciana is a Black Autistic activist, pedagogue, mother of an autistic child, and one of the founders and current director of Vidas Negras com Deficiência Importam (Black Disabled Lives Matter) Brazil (VNDI). VNDI was formed in 2020 to highlight the intersection between racism and ableism in Brazil and highlight the rights of Black and other marginalized people with disabilities in the country. As a Black, Autistic and bisexual woman from a favela background, Luciana has become a leading voice in disability and anti-racist discourse in Brazil, mobilizing others who have historically been silenced or absent from both movements. As a mother of a non-verbal autistic son, she also has the perspective of a parent and is in the position of being able to relate to the parents’ movement. Funny, relatable, and determined, she is an asset to the future of the disability rights movement.

In August 2021 Luciana spoke at the Supreme Federal Court as a spokesperson for disability rights movements against the proposed law to promote segregated education in Brazil. As a result, the court suspended the judgment. From September 2021 she started working in partnership on a project with Minority Rights Group International and the University of York to write and submit a report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on intersectional race/disability discrimination.