Assuming people have to have a visible disability to actually be disabled.Asking invasive questions about the medical history or personal life of someone with a disability.Talking to a person with a disability like they are a child, talking about them instead of directly to them, or speaking for them.Wearing scented products in a scent-free environment.Using the accessible bathroom stall when you are able to use the non-accessible stall without pain or risk of injury.Making a movie that doesn’t have audio description or closed captioning.Casting a non-disabled actor to play a disabled character in a play, movie, TV show, or commercial.Framing disability as either tragic or inspirational in news stories, movies, and other popular forms of media.Using someone else’s mobility device as a hand or foot rest.Choosing an inaccessible venue for a meeting or event, therefore excluding some participants.The mass murder of disabled people in Nazi Germanyīut what about ‘everyday’ or minor ableism? What does that look like?.The eugenics movement of the early 1900s.Refusing to provide reasonable accommodations.Using disability as a punchline, or mocking people with disabilities.The assumption that people with disabilities want or need to be ‘fixed’.Buildings without braille on signs, elevator buttons, etc.Failing to incorporate accessibility into building design plans.Segregating adults and children with disabilities in institutions. The use of restraint or seclusion as a means of controlling students with disabilities.Segregating students with disabilities into separate schools.Lack of compliance with disability rights laws like the ADA.Like racism and sexism, ableism classifies entire groups of people as ‘less than,’ and includes harmful stereotypes, misconceptions, and generalizations of people with disabilities. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require ‘fixing’ and defines people by their disability. The world wasn’t built with people with disabilities in mind, andīecause of that, the world we live in is inherently “ableist.” So…what is ableism?Ībleism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. As buzzwords like social justice, equity, and inclusion permeate our collective consciousness, it’s essential for advocates of progress to remember another ‘ism,’ one that is frequently left out of conversations.
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