Around the world, about 10% of the global population — some 650 million people — live with a disability. Despite the leaps and bounds in inclusivity in recent years, there remain certain spaces where people with disabilities have greater difficulty feeling welcome. One of the facts about Down syndrome disability and many others is that socialization can be difficult, especially as people with disabilities get a little older, therefore many experience social isolation.

For people living with Down syndrome disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Asbergers Syndrome, ADHD, and any myriad of intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities, building these social relationships can be markedly difficult. This is especially true of social mingling elements that people without disabilities take for granted, like going out for drinks and dancing. The neurodiversity movement has done a great deal to integrate workplaces, but the chances for fostering social development aren’t as common. However, a nightclub in Baltimore has become a social beacon for people with disabilities and an example that needs be mirrored everywhere.

In 2015, The League For People With Disabilities in Baltimore opened Club 1111. Transforming their 1111 East Cold Spring Lane location into nightclub, they built a safe social party space dedicated to all people with disabilites.

What began as a fundraising effort to help pay for services the league offers swiftly became something much more important. The first Club 1111 saw more than 700 participants traveling from around the state to dance, mingle, and party in a place where they felt comfortable and safe. This is vastly important because of the number of young adults with Down syndrome disability, ASD, and so many others who graduate high school and lose connection with social schedules that primary and secondary education routinely offer. Club 1111 seeks to remedy that.

“This is their club. Here, they feel like people without a disability would feel,” said the League’s President David Greenberg.

The end goal is to encourage full-inclusion, but certain social and medical barriers make the process a much more laborious journey. Club 1111, however, is an excellent start. Club-goers are in a safe place where they can dance like nobody’s watching the way the rest of the club-going population does. Medical and social support personnel are on the premises to mitigate any physical or mental health crises that may occur, but Club 1111 remains most commonly a place where hundreds of extraordinary people come to get their groove on. Fifty-nine-year-old Janice Jackson, who has been in a wheelchair since an accident in 1984, sums up the social vibe perfectly:

“Whatever you come looking for, you can find it here. We see a lot of relationships blossom. Some fail. Love is always in the air here at Club 1111. Everybody feels free here.”