Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Vice President Kamala Harris wears a blue suit and black mask as she speaks at an event.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about disability rights and abortion access, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in her ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Politics

Why Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned her blue suit at a disability rights meeting

Harris met with disability rights leaders to mark the anniversary of the ADA. So why are we talking about her suit?

Sara Luterman

Caregiving reporter

Sara Luterman, The 19th

Published

2022-07-28 16:52
4:52
July 28, 2022
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The ongoing dustup over Vice President Kamala Harris describing herself during a meeting with disability rights leaders this week is much ado about an increasingly common practice and a distraction from the substance of the gathering, advocates say. 

On Tuesday, Harris began the meeting marking the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by describing herself: “I am Kamala Harris. My pronouns are ‘she’ and ‘her,’ and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.” 

This brief moment was roundly criticized by political opponents and in right wing media. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted, “If you ever wonder why the left can’t win elections despite the insanity of Trumpism, save stuff like this for reference later.” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and a slew of other Republican politicians also  made jabs on social media. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida went on Fox Business and jokingly described himself as a “man on the screen with a gray suit on” and was greeted with laughter from the host. 

At The Atlantic, staff writer Graeme Wood said Harris was “hopelessly liberal or simply out of her mind.” To Wood, she “sound[ed] so much like she was from outer space.” 

But to blind and low-vision viewers, the vice president was simply doing a visual self-description, a practice meant to better include them in meetings. People engaging in visual self-description provide a brief overview of what they look like and what they are wearing — any details they feel may be important for blind and low-vision participants. 

“It’s just access to information that someone sighted would have,” explained Thomas Reid, a blind audio producer and podcaster who has worked with companies like Netflix and HBO to expand their audio description for blind audiences. 

“Kamala Harris said she had a blue suit on. OK, so now I know how she dressed for the occasion. That means it was a very professional thing. Saying it makes that information accessible to people who are blind,” Reid said. 

Visual self-description is relatively new, and the precise origin of the practice is unclear. 

“It definitely started in the past few years, but I don’t know exactly who started it,” Reid said. 

  • More from The 19th
    A health worker prepares covid-19 vaccine for young children
  • 43 percent of parents ‘definitely’ won’t vaccinate their children under 5, survey finds
  • COVID continues to hit nursing homes harder, AARP data shows
  • Rep. Cori Bush wants to establish a federal office to fund reproductive care

“It’s not from the National Federation of the Blind. It’s not something we originated, and it’s not something we’ve prioritized,” said Chris Danielsen, the organization’s director of public relations. The National Federation of the Blind is one of the oldest and largest blind-led organizations in the United States. 

The federation does not have an official position for or against visual self-description, according to Danielsen. 

“Vice President Harris was acting with the intent to be more inclusive. And we absolutely respect that intent,” Danielsen said.

Jasmin Bailey, manager of business operations for the American Association of People with Disabilities, became blind later in life. She finds visual self-description useful and introduced the practice to the organization. It is now a normal part of meetings and other programming. 

“When I’m in a meeting, I’m always curious: What is the speaker wearing? What do they look like? That’s information sighted people just have. It’s information I would like to have as well,” Bailey said.

The American Association of People with Disabilities was one of the organizations present at the meeting with Harris. Although Bailey herself was not in the room, she praised Harris for engaging in visual self-description. 

“[Using visual self-description] demonstrates [Harris] was thinking about the inclusion of all people. I applaud Vice President Harris for being a leader and for ensuring she was able to engage all people attending the meeting,” Bailey said. 

Though the practice is growing, not everyone agrees that it’s useful. 

“People have different opinions based on their lived experiences. I’m a totally blind person. I was born totally blind. This is just me personally, but I don’t necessarily find it all that helpful to be told how people look,” Danielsen said. 

Lydia X. Z. Brown, director of policy, advocacy and external affairs for the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network, was one of the advocates at the table during the meeting with Harris. Brown believes that the reaction to Harris’ visual self-description is primarily rooted in anti-trans sentiment, noting that Harris identified herself as a woman. 

“The mere act of mentioning what a person’s pronouns are is apparently incredibly triggering to a lot of people who would rather trans people not exist, or if we do exist, that we shut up about our existence,” Brown said. 

Brown is nonbinary and was pleased that Harris used a visual self-description and shared her pronouns with the table. 

“It is disappointing and upsetting that the vice president’s attempt to be more inclusive and accessible has been met with such vitriol and hostility,” Brown said. 

Race also plays a role in the debate over visual self-description. Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, is in favor of visual self-description because she has been mistaken as White in blind community spaces. Girma is Black.  

“It happens a lot in the blind community, listening to my voice and assuming I look a certain way,” she said in a video on her YouTube channel last year. 

Girma believes that opposition to visual self-description is based on a desire to avoid acknowledging uncomfortable truths.

“Many blind people who don’t want visual descriptions live with a lot of privilege. Questioning your own privilege can feel uncomfortable,” she said via email.

“Our complexions have so much meaning in our society, in terms of how we have been treated historically in this country,” Reid said. Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, race impacts how people treat each other, according to Reid. 

“White folks aren’t used to describing themselves. They’ve never had to. Whiteness is treated like it isn’t a distinguishing factor,” he said. 

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

While Harris did share her gender during her visual self-description, she did not share her race. Reid does not think this poses an issue, although it is information he normally recommends people share if they feel comfortable doing so. 

“Everybody knows by now that Kamala Harris is Black,” he said. 

Advocates at the meeting, including Brown, have expressed frustration with how much attention Harris’ brief visual self-description is getting rather than the content of the meeting. Leaders discussed the specific issues facing people with disabilities in a post-Roe world, including higher rates of sexual assault and forced sterilization. 

“Why aren’t reporters covering the substance of the meeting we held yesterday? The discussion we had was about disparities and access to health care. It was about disabled people’s higher rates of complications from pregnancy. It was about the experiences of disabled people of color, disabled people who don’t speak English, disabled people who are trying to raise children,” Brown said. “No journalist has reached out to us to ask about those issues.” 

In particular, Brown highlighted the parental rights of people with disabilities. They recounted being called late at night because a disabled woman’s newborn child was being taken away after she was seen as unfit solely because of her disability. 

“Instead of real issues, there’s dozens and dozens of articles about this temper tantrum that the right wing is throwing because Kamala Harris described herself and mentioned her pronouns,” Brown said.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

Val Demings

Election 2022

Is Florida still a political battleground? Senate candidate Val Demings thinks so.

Democrats say if anyone has the résumé to take Republican Marco Rubio’s Senate seat, it’s this former police chief and three-term House lawmaker who presided over Trump’s impeachment investigation.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram