Toward more inclusive and realistic images

You’ve all seen it. The stock imagery. It’s the high fiving white dudes. Or the oddly tokenized board room shot. But what if available stock photography wasn’t so cheesy? And what if it represented a broader range of the folks we work with day in and day out? That’s what Disabled and Here is hoping to accomplish. And they could use your help.

Disabled And Here is a visual celebration of disabled BIPOC in the Pacific Northwest. Help us fund this photo series to spotlight BIPOC with various disabilities — including invisible ones! On top of portraits and interviews, we’ll also shoot group pictures for stock photography usage, to provide accessible options that avoid the ableist gaze (commonly known as: seeing disabled people as objects of inspiration or pity rather than the multifaceted humans we are).

We want folx modeling their own mobility aids and representing different body sizes/types, sexual orientations, and gender identities. The first areas of stock photography we’d like to cover are disability and activism + disability and queerness. To encourage widespread adoption, we’ll set up a website where the stock photos can be downloaded for FREE under a Creative Commons attribution license.

The Kickstarter campaign still has a way to go — and a short time to get there. So if this concept resonates with you, please consider kicking in a few bucks to back it.

Want to connect with more awesome dots in the Portland startup community? Consider joining us over on Patreon ❤️

Originally published at siliconflorist.com on January 15, 2019.