The Path to Autonomy: Why Disability Pride Matters in Life and at Impruvon

By Amy Vitale, Customer Success Manager - Massachusetts

This Disability Pride Month, I’ve found myself reflecting on the concept of 'pride.' For years, like many people, I thought of pride as a celebration of personal achievements, the moments when things go 'right' by conventional standards.

But the definition of pride changed for me profoundly when my path to parenthood took an unexpected turn. My son was diagnosed as neurodivergent: he is AuDHD (the combination of Autism and ADHD) and possesses a PDA profile (Pathological Demand Avoidance).

That sounds like a lot of letters and clinical terms. But in our household, it just means my son experiences the world through a radically different nervous system, one that requires me, and everyone around him, to fundamentally shift how we think about competence, communication, and independence.

Challenging "The Way We’ve Always Done It"

When you have a son with a PDA nervous system, standard parenting advice doesn't just fail; it backfires. For a child with a drive for autonomy, a simple demand like "put on your shoes"  can trigger a profound fight-or-flight safety response. It's not defiance,  it is anxiety driven by a need to feel safe through control over his own environment.

This experience forced me onto a rapid, humbling learning curve. I had to abandon the medical model of disability, which focuses on 'fixing' what is wrong with the person. Instead, I had to embrace the social model of disability.

The social model teaches that disability is not a deficit within the individual, but rather a lack of compatibility between a person and their environment. My son isn't 'broken' or 'bad',  he is simply disabled by environments that don't accommodate his extreme need for autonomy or his unique sensory needs.

Disability Pride isn't about ignoring the very real challenges he faces. It's about accepting those differences without shame. It is a declaration that the way my son sees the world is a valid, whole way of being, and that it is incumbent upon us, the world, to build a space where he can thrive as he is.

Why My Son’s Worldview Matters at Impruvon

You might wonder how this connects to my work here at Impruvon. The reality is that the lessons I learn at home are the single biggest drivers of my professional perspective.

When we talk about inclusion and diversity at Impruvon, we are often talking about disability, but sometimes we limit our thinking to visible disabilities or physical accessibility. But what about cognitive and neurological accessibility?

My son has taught me the invaluable benefits of neurodiversity, both in life and in the workplace:

• The Power of Innovation: Because standard approaches don’t work for him, my son is a natural-born innovator. He is constantly finding lateral solutions to problems that non-PDA thinkers might not even notice. In our company, we need that exact mindset to stay competitive.

• The Importance of Pattern Recognition: His autistic brain notices details and spots patterns that others miss, a highly valuable skill in a fast-paced work environment.

• A Rethink of Management: Leading someone who rejects a traditional 'command-and-control' style requires building a relationship based on true partnership, trust, and shared purpose. If we adopted this PDA-informed approach to team management, emphasizing autonomy, how much more motivated and creative would all of us be?

Moving Beyond Acceptance

Disability Pride is about celebrating the strengths that come from being different. It’s about recognizing that a diversity of minds makes a stronger, more creative, and more resilient team.

At Impruvon, they put people first, especially individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), by empowering them with tools that promote independence, improve medication safety, and support a higher quality of life, so families can feel confident their loved ones, like my son, are safer, more independent, and better supported every day. We cannot fully embody these values without proactively creating space for neurodivergent employees, partners, and customers.

This month, I am proud of my son. Not for how he conforms, but for how he doesn't. I am proud of his fierce need for autonomy, his innovative mind, and his authenticity. My challenge to all of us is this: Let’s make sure that when a person with an AuDHD or PDA mind steps through our door, they feel the exact same sense of pride and belonging that we celebrate today.