LibGuides: Anti-Oppression: Anti-Oppression & Beloit College: Ableism

Anti-Ableism

Ableism

Ableism is prejudice plus power; anyone of any degree of physical or non-physical ability can have/exhibit ability-based prejudice, but in North America (and globally), able-bodied people have the institutional power, therefore Ableism is a systematized discrimination, antagonism, or exclusion directed against people with disabilities based on the belief that ‘normal ability’ is superior. Ableism involves both denying access to people with disabilities and exclusive attitudes of able-bodied persons.

An ableist society is said to be one that treats non-disabled individuals as the standard of ‘normal living’, which results in public and private places and services, education, and social work that are built to serve 'standard' people, thereby inherently excluding those with various disabilities. (from StopAbleism.org)

Video Resources

Ableism | Social Justice Project

Overcoming Ableism | TED

Microaggressions

Ableist Microaggressions are commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults in relation to developmental, emotional, physical or psychiatric (dis)ability. They are structurally based and invoke oppressive systems of a "normal ability" hierarchy. Ableist Microinvalidations, Microinsults, Microassaults are specific types of microaggressions.

Note: The prefix “micro” is used because these are invocations of normalized ability hierarchy at the individual level (person to person), where as the "macro" level refers to aggressions committed by structures as a whole (e.g. an organizational policy). "Micro" in no way minimalizes or otherwise evaluates the impact or seriousness of the aggressions.

Related Information

Video Resources

Everyday Ableism: Unpacking Disability
Stereotypes and Microaggressions

The Disabled using
Ableist Language

Accessibility

Accessibility means access. It refers to the ability for everyone, regardless of disability or special needs, to access, use, and benefit from everything within their environment. It is the “degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible.”

Founded on the principles of Universal Design, the goal of accessibility is to create an inclusive society for people with physical, mobility, visual, auditory or cognitive disabilities. This means everyone has equal access to perceive, understand, engage, navigate and interact with all elements of the physical and digital world.

Ableism and ableist societies restrict accessibility, either consciously or unconsciously, by designing physical locations/buildings, technology, transportation systems, communication systems, etc. that meet the needs of abled/able-bodied people and dismiss the needs of disabled and differently abled people. Disabled and differently abled people, therefore, are primarily disadvantaged not by their difference, but by the society that disregards their difference and restricts accessibility.

Related Information

Video Resources

Accessibility and Ableism

Disability Advocacy: Reaching for
an Accessible Future | TED

Abled/Able-Bodied Privilege

Abled or Able-bodied privilege refers to the unearned benefits that American society and many other societies and cultures accord to able-bodied and/or abled people. This privilege is rooted in two cultural beliefs: 1) that a "normal" human being is one who can see, walk, hear, talk, and has significant no physical, cognitive, emotional, developmental, or intellectual divergence, and 2) that disability is "abnormal" and therefore a (social) disadvantage. These beliefs or societal models mean that many cultures, including the US, have set up social expectations, structures, cultural mores, and institutions to accommodate able-bodied and/or abled people by default and that dismiss and/or marginalize the needs and experiences of disabled and/or differently abled people. Abled/Able-bodied privilege privilege speaks to how not having a disability or not being perceived as having a disability means not having to think or address topics that those without abled/able-bodied privilege have to deal with, often on a daily basis.

To give you an idea of abled/able-bodied privilege, here are some examples of the benefits abled/able-bodied people receive:

I can easily arrange to be in the company of people of my physical ability.
I can get inside all buildings by the main entrance.
If I need to move, I can easily be assured of purchasing housing I can get access to easily - accessibility is one thing I do not need to make a special point of looking for.
I can be assured that my entire neighborhood will be accessible to me.
I can assume that I can go shopping alone, and they will always have appropriate accommodations to make this experience hassle-free.

Related Information

Abled/Able-Bodied Fragility

Abled or Able-bodied fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of religious stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as tears, argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate Christian religious equilibrium (adapted from "White Fragility").

The dominant association between "normal" and "abled or abl-bodied" allows most abled people to live in social environments that insulate them from challenging encounters with abilities, accessibility perspectives, or people who differ from themselves. Within this dominant social environment, abled people come to expect social comfort and a sense of belonging and that their perspective of "normal" is correct by default. When this comfort is disrupted, abled people are often at a loss because they have not had to build skills for constructive engagement with differently abled and disabled people and their social perspectives. They may become defensive, positioning themselves as victims of anti-ableist work and co-opting the rhetoric of violence to describe their experiences of being challenged on abled/able-bodied privilege (adapted from "Christian Fragility").