GimpGirl Community

The GimpGirl Community supports women-identified individuals with disabilities uniting together, sharing experiences, supporting each other, and contributing to an ever-vibrant community.

GimpGirl Community was started in 1998 by Jennifer Cole and several other women with disabilities who didn’t feel like there was a community out there that understood them and their needs.

Our smart, sassy, sexy members come together to collaborate and share their lives, experiences, problems and successes, in a safe space that focuses more on the women they are, and less on the disabilities they have.

Members are valued and respected because of who they are, and that has always included women-identified people with disabilities of all shapes, sizes, and colors, not to mention ages and sexual orientations. Friends, family and partners, as well as academics and other colleagues are welcome to work with us in furthering our goals.

Now, you may be thinking, why “GimpGirl”? The mother of one of our colleagues put it best when she said: “‘GimpGirl’ seems rude but when I think more on the term, it is upfront and confident and takes away any sense of pity.”

We have an ever-growing list of activities and information:

* Members can attend our meetings and events in the virtual world Second Life or via the screen reader friendly text chat room on our website.
* Weekly support meetings on-line (a mix of peer counseling, advocacy and collaboration).
* Monthly support meetings on-line for single women with disabilities.
* Monthly support meetings on-line for our current partners.
* We also have a growing list of accessible gynecologists.

We believe it is important to engage the public to increase awareness of issues vital to our community through:

* Public on-line events such as presentations and classes, as well as open discussions.
* We have ongoing forum posts discussing a wide range of issues that concern women with disabilities.