2023

Overview

HopePunk: Persevering, Building Community, Chasing Hope

What is HopePunk: HopePunk is a type of speculative fiction that stands in contrast to the imagined dystopias of tomorrow – and the real dystopian trends of today. HopePunk centers fighting for positive change, kindness as a radical act, and finding strength in the community to overcome challenges. The term was coined via a Tumblr post in 2017 by fantasy author Alexandra Rowland. It upends narratives of apathy, cynicism, and hopelessness by imagining worlds where collective rebellion and resistance lead to liberation. 

The present sucks and the future’s not going to fix itself. Pandemic, accelerating climate change, widespread economic uncertainty, supply disruptions, inflation, school and work moving back and forth between online and in-person, a land war in Europe. The last few years have been hard for everyone, but many of these problems have hit disabled people especially hard. We have to work to persevere, but we need to want more than to just persist. We need to figure out what we need, how to convey those needs, and how to achieve them in society, politics, education, employment, health care, and everywhere else. 

The theme for the 2023 Summit was a call for agitation: 

What can we do now so that the future is far better than the present for disabled people? 

2023 Recap

• Check the 2023 full report (PDF | Plain Text | Word) for more details.

• Peruse the 2023 event program (PDF | Plain Text | Word) for topics of interest.

• Watch the 2023 recordings.

Thank you to our 2023 Sponsors!

We are able to offer the Including Disability Global Summit as a free and accessible conference due to our generous sponsors.

Title Sponsors

• The Graduate School’s Office of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI), University of Maryland

Fearless Sponsors

• The President’s Commission on Disability Issues (PCDI), University of Maryland

• College of Information Studies (iSchool), University of Maryland

• Maryland Developmental Disability Council (MDDC)
  Disclaimer: This Summit was supported, in part by grant number CFDA 93.630, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.

No Barrier Sponsors

• College of Behavioral & Social Sciences (BSOS), University of Maryland

• College of Education, University of Maryland 

• Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education (CHSE), College of Education, University of Maryland 

• Division of Information Technology (DivIT), University of Maryland 

• University of Maryland Libraries

• Maryland Relay 

Accessible Sponsors

• College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), University of Maryland 

• Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC), University of Maryland

• Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGST), University of Maryland

• Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland

• School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, University of Maryland

Thought Partners

• Ontario Tech University

• Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility (MIDA), University of Maryland