Vicki Landers

Vicki Landers is a nationally recognized disability-rights leader, community organizer, and the Founder and Executive Director of Disability Pride Pennsylvania—formerly Disability Pride Philadelphia Inc.—a statewide nonprofit dedicated to celebrating disability culture, amplifying disabled leadership, and advancing equity through year-round community engagement. Rooted in her identity as a disabled queer non-binary person and her deep belief in collective liberation, Vicki built Disability Pride Pennsylvania on a simple but powerful truth: community is the antidote to isolation, and disabled people deserve spaces designed with them—not around them.

Each year, Disability Pride Pennsylvania brings together thousands of disabled people, families, advocates, partners, and allies through festivals, parades, community gatherings, virtual programs, workshops, arts events, advocacy trainings, and civic-engagement efforts. Vicki’s vision has ensured that every event- whether a street festival, film screening, community conversation, or nature-based activity- is intentionally designed with access at the center, grounded in the social model of disability, and reflective of the diverse lived experiences of the disability community.

Vicki is a board member of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) and has served on NCIL’s Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Committee—now the Empowerment in Access Committee—helping to redefine its mission to comply with federal executive orders while preserving the heart of its work: uplifting marginalized disability voices and shaping policies through lived experience.

In 2024, Vicki opened the Disability Pride Center in Philadelphia, the first of its kind in the state—an accessible, multi-use space for workshops, performances, community gatherings, and peer support. While the center closed in 2025 due to safety concerns related to building activity, Vicki guided the organization through the transition with transparency and care, ensuring programming continued citywide and reaffirming the vision for a future permanent home.

A skilled storyteller, strategist, and coalition builder, Vicki is frequently invited to speak about disability culture, accessible design, leadership, and the intersections of disability with race, gender, and class. Her work emphasizes joy as resistance, access as love, and community as a fundamental human right.