Photo: Carl Stevens/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — There was an unusual display at City Hall Plaza in Boston on Tuesday: a giant, four-sided cube with a message.
The one-day display was placed near the Government Center MBTA station by MassAbility, a state agency that helps people with disabilities live independently.
Each side of the cube featured messages from people about eliminating the stigma of disability and building a more inclusive society.
"We’ve built this cube encouraging people to stop by to write down what a future without disability stigma means to them, and how they feel like they want to let go of stigma," MassAbility’s Alexandra Sanyal said.
Some of the messages people had written on the cube included “I’m done judging,” and “I’m allergic to stigma.”
"We're really just trying to get people to think differently about disability stigma and to let it go and leave it behind," Sanyal said.
Governor Maura Healey signed legislation in September that renamed the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission to MassAbility.
It also replaced outdated terms from the general laws, like "handicap," "handicapped," and "retarded," with terms like "barrier," "person with a disability," and person with an "intellectual disability."
“Stigma is kept alive by society and so it’s important to change hearts and minds and get people to understand that stigma is holding us back from being our best selves,” Sanyal said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens (@CarlWBZ) reports.