gifts made by people with disabilities

Gifts Made by People with Disabilities

ByMeriah

Please Share

This is a disability gift guide. That means that was follows is a long list of people with disabilities, their allies and families who make things that you can buy.
This list is meant for anytime, not just the holiday season, because there is no time like the present for gift giving, is there?!
There are no affiliate links in this post.
This list far from complete.
There are a lot of fantastic businesses that should be mentioned but I didn’t have the links or I didn’t know about them. So please, do me a favor and leave the links to artists and businesses that I’ve missed in the comment section of this post
I’ve organized this gift guide for disability into three categories to make your shopping a little easier, according to who you most want to support.
photo for the disability gift guide: image description: child holding orange flower in front of her smiiling face. Text to the right reads "Disabled Entrepreneurs"

1. Gifts Made by People with Disabilities

This means that the product is made by the individual with the disability and the store is run largely through their own efforts.

Haley Brown –I adore Haley. She has this awesome tee for the badasses in your life (including you!), beautiful drawings, cards, prints  and this “Coping Calendar” which I have ordered for the past 4 years and can’t speak highly enough of.

Christina Mills modeling Nth Degree T-ShirtThe Nth Degree : Thoughtful, thought-provoking clothes, bumper stickers, pins and posters representing the disability spectrum (like this t-shirt that model Christina Mills wears, saying “Feel the Power of the Disability Vote!”

Troy Made It: Pottery! Follow him on Instagram (click here) for updates. He has a shop on Etsy that sells out fast (so stay tuned!)
Allie Art: Holy Mother of WOW! Allie’s art is gorgeous! Vibrant, color-rich and reasonably-priced. She has jewelry, too.

Oliver HellowellOliver Hellowell Photography – Gorgeous photos. Lots of nature-shots.

Disability Visibility Project Swag! This is stuff that is made by someone with a disability and it’s all going to support the Disability Visibility Project which is awesome-sauce.

Alana Designs: Lovely prints and cards that she made. Her drawing is amazing in its delicacy and detail.

Creativity Explored: a disabled artists collective website, with multiple artists featured and opportunities to shop their work (this is a site you want to bookmark, it’s so comprehensive and brilliant).
Blind Mice Mega Mall: a site designed specifically for blind/low vision people that has tons of blind-owned stores within.
Gateway Arts: another disabled artists collective website, with multiple artists featured and opportunities to shop their work – definitely another bookmark-worthy place!
Andy Meredith Photography: I really love his work, all black and white photography (and follow him on Instagram). Shop at his site, linked here
My Imagiville, DJ Svobada is autistic. He creates this alternate-world, “Imagiville” with different kinds of people in it. He sells all kinds of super-cool things on his site.

Christian Royal Pottery: Oh. My. Lord. Wait till my mom sees his stuff!! Ma, you are going to LOVE THIS!!!! Gorgeous, gorgeous pottery. Those leaves?! The designs? Brilliant! I think his slogan should be, “Stoneware with Impeccable Charm.”

Mindie Lind –  Musician with photography and videos on her site as well as music for purchase

snow-in-norway-4Tazia Fawley – She makes cut-outs and paintings that are simply vibrant and bursting with energy. She is also the famous artist who gave Prince George one of her paintings, which was displayed in his nursery.

Suzy Norris- Powerful art. Suzy’s stuff comes with a money-back satisfaction guarantee, and most of her art is available in any form: phone case, t-shirt, print, poster, etc.

 andrewweatherly_winterworlds_largeArtlifting – Dreamy, often abstract art from the brilliant Andrew Weatherly. He has a wide collection of everything from rainbow swirls to sunrises.

hand_dyed_silk_scarves1

Would you like to save this?

We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!

Megalogy – Megan Bomgaars is one of my favorites from the hit series, “Born This Way,” because she reminds me a lot of my daughter, Moxie. She is also a total rockstar of creative awesomeness, selling everything from her hand-dyed silk scarves to yoga pants. Also! She has a new collection in collaboration with Sanrio (- Hello Kitty!!) which is super exciting. Be sure to check it out.

Sophiola: vibrant, colorful prints, cards and paintings

MVB Printmaker – Truly lovely handbound journals, sketchbooks and books. Neat clasps, cords and ways to close them. Also, mini-books.

tropical-heatSweet Heat Jams – Pineapple and Jalepano jam?! Don’t mind if I do. This stuff sounds divine. If that’s not your cuppa tea, there’s a lot more for ya on the site shop.

 healing boxHealing Boxes – Remember when I interviewed Grace Quantock? Of course you do! She’s the driving force behind the rad “Healing Boxes”, which offer “delightful, practical and ethically filled gift boxes for people dealing with illness or tough times.” They have all kinds of boxes – from “Hospital Boxes” to boxes for those recently engaged in Traumatic Brain Injury.


Yo, Disabled & Proud!
This is an organization that helps empower youth and others with disabilities. They have a fantastic online gift shop, chock-full of great stuff like books related to the disability rights movement, disability pride and power. Check it out.

Wendy Elliott-Vandivier: absolutely lovely “cartoons” – I feel weird calling them cartoons because they are more like gorgeous illustrations about things that are very disability-specific. This is art that is about us, by us, and I love it.
T-Shirts:

  • By Mara – cool-ass Deaf love t-shirts
  • Tee-Public, by Mike Mort – super awesome t-shirts that go across the disability spectrum, something for everyone
  • Group Hug Apparel –  t-shirt company run by Andrew, who has Down syndrome
  • “My Other Disability is A Bad Attitude” – play on inspiration porn by Criptique – buy it here
  • Seanese – Sean, from “Born This Way” has his own line of bad-ass shirts (I want them all!)
  • Autistic Viking – I love the “Here’s Your Quiet Hands” shirt!
  • Human Needs Are Not “Special”
photo for the gift guide for disability: image description: a small child is at the waterfront and is turning toward the camera with her arms spread wide. the text reads, "allies of the disabled (friends/family)"

2. Gifts Made by Allies, Friends and Family of People with Disabilities

Small businesses that are run by allies of the disabled – namely, friends and family of the disabled
  • Adaptions by Adrian: This came very highly recommended by wheelchair-using people who use adaptive clothing. The goods look so cool: functional, cute, with lots of accessories!
  • 4Peace Art: Two little girls – sisters of a young boy with Down syndrome – sell cards on Etsy and a portion of profit is donated to NDSC.
  • Kroc Co Paper Shop: All things paper! Super fun
  • Mighty Moose Alters: Very exciting shop: the mom modifies backpacks, purses, and diaper bags to accommodate feeding tubes, and is slowly getting into adaptive clothing as well – YESSSSS!
  • Cristina’s Tortina Shop: cupcakes, cakes & speciality treats made by a mom of an individual with Down syndrome, and who hires people with Down syndrome.
  • Reason to Bake: gluten free morsels of cookie deliciousness
  • Dreamer’s Coffee: Coffee distribution company run mostly by parents of individuals with Down syndrome, selling coffee & coffee-accompanying products. Here’s a link to Crumley Dreamer’s Coffee and here is one to Dawn’s Dreamer’s Coffee

T-Shirts:

photo for the gift guide for disability: image description: 3 children smile at the camera, text reads "businesses that work with the disabled and/or give back to the disability community"

3. Gifts by Businesses That Hire People with Disabilities

Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty

I’ve been buying this stuff for my kids for a while now, so imagine my delight when I found out that Aaron is a large employer of people with disabilities?! Rock on. Moxie’s favorite is the neon pink. Of course.

 arc barks dog treatsArc Barks Dog Treats

I had a service dog and I had no idea about these! Pure awesomeness. Preservative-free dog treats made by people with disabilities?! Count me in.
Blue Q
Blue Q is another company that I’ve been buying from for a long time and had no idea that are so supportive of disability. They hire A LOT of people with developmental disabilities. With products that are sassy and fun (the first thing I ever bought from them was their “Instant Irish Accent Gum”), it’s always a delight to browse through their stuff.

 The Big Guns:

Ever want to know what businesses have a good track record with disability?

That is, that recruit, hire and retain employees with disabilities, that support accommodation and more?

Check out the Return on Disability Group.

They have deeply analyzed almost every aspect of employment and disability within major firms, and make it easy for you to decide where you want your money to go.

Added to that, they cover both the United States and Canada.

______________________________
That’s it for now, folks.
Please share this post and support businesses that have a positive connection with disability. Feel free to leave links to businesses that you know of that were not included in this post.
Happy shopping!

SaveSave
If you know of more great entrepreneurs with disabilities or ally businesses to bookmark, know about and/or support, PLEASE leave the link in the comments of this post so that everyone can benefit.
Thank you.
You Can Buy My Photos (& Keep These Kinds of Posts Coming!) I sell many of my photos on my photography website, Meriah Snaps (or Meriahs Naps! haha)
You can also order things like canvas and metal prints, phone cases, and cool stuff like that. Just click the link below to go to my photo website.
Alternatively, if you subscribe as a Patron, you will get free downloads every month! Be a Patron

________________
Photo Credits:

SaveSave

Please Share

Meriah Nichols is a mental health therapist. AuDHD + profoundly deaf, she's a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black. She parents 3 kids - 2 also AuDHD and one with Down syndrome - along with 6 cats and one dog.

Read On