Ableism 101: Recognizing and Resisting Discrimination
Learn what ableism is and how it appears in the world we live in.
What if I told you that you and everyone you love are being harmed by something as sinister as microplastics, and you likely know little to nothing about it?
Before you dismiss this as hyperbole or conspiracy, consider this: there's a form of discrimination deeply woven into the fabric of our society, one that affects over a billion individuals every single day, and which nearly every human being on this planet is exposed to regularly.
It's called ableism, and like microplastics, its harmful effects often go unnoticed or unacknowledged.
What is Ableism?
Ableism is a form of discrimination or prejudice against disabled people that treats, perceives, or asserts that disabled people are 'less valuable" than nondisabled people.
This prejudice influences your life more than you might think, even if you don't have a disability.
It can negatively impact how you think about your body and the bodies of others.
It's the reason why your sick leave policy at work sucks.
And it can even lead to death.
Examples of ableism number in the thousands, if not millions, so an easier way to identify ableism in your own life is to understand the 5 ways ableism presents itself. These 5 categories are:
Containment
Expendability
Compartmentalization
Blaming the Victim
Denial of Disability
Containment
Containment is one of the most ubiquitous ways ableism shows up, and that's in part because the definition encompasses restrictions and limitations placed upon disabled people that are physical/geographical, psychological, and/or social.
Containment is the limiting or restricting of a disabled person's choices, exposure, their ability to fully participate in society, and/or their life experiences (Mackelprang and Salsgiver).
Ableist beliefs baked into the medical model of disability led to the physical containment of disabled people in institutions and other facilities designed to warehouse them. We've mostly moved away from this thanks to the hard work of disabled activists, but even today we house disabled people in "nursing facilities and convalescent centers and various 'special' programs" (Mackelprang and Salsgiver) where they have rules and limitations placed upon them and are generally kept separated from the rest of society.
Containment also shows up in the design of physical environments.
How many bathrooms do you know of that have height-adjustable adult-sized changing stations? Without these, many disabled adults are forced to plan their outings around their bodily functions, if they can go out at all.
Or how many stores have you been in where the displays are so close together you had to tango with a stranger just to see everything being offered? These poorly-designed spaces aren't accessible for manual wheelchairs, let alone electric wheelchairs with their larger turn radii.
Then there are environments, events, and physical things that are inaccessible for various mental disabilities, like places with poorly-explained instructions, etc.
There's also the social aspect of containment, such as when a server doesn't ask the disabled person what they would like to order, but instead asks the person that they're with, or when someone makes a decision for a disabled person and assumes they know what that person wants or needs.
There's a fantastic ad out by CoorDown. In it, I can find a couple of examples of containment. Can you pick them out? Check out the ad here:
Expendability
Trigger warning: murder, suicide
Expendability is the perception that disabled people are expendable or disposable.
The concept of expendability is deadly. An incalculable number of innocent lives have been snuffed out because of its adoption, yet this line of thinking is considered appropriate culturally and receives little to no pushback outside of the disability community.
We've seen this line of thinking repeatedly throughout the pandemic.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the threat of COVID was taken more seriously until the data came in showing that it was primarily killing people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and those with weaker immune systems.
In hospitals, "crisis of care" plans were put into place that prioritized the needs of people who were 'healthy' and had long-term survival prospects over those who were disabled and had a "lower quality of life". These triage plans were found to be discriminatory and were mostly stopped, but they harmed disabled people in the interim. (See additional resources)
When the vaccines for COVID first came out, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses were not prioritized. Age range was how, in most places, the vaccine was prioritized after essential workers had their opportunity to receive it. This is despite the fact that, at that point in time, we knew that COVID was killing people with disabilities and chronic illnesses more than other populations.
I could go on. But there are other examples of Expendability to cover, so let's get to it.
Sometimes the effects of the idea of Expendability are portrayed as acts of kindness or mercy. I'm talking about "mercy killings."
A mercy killing is the murder or attempted murder of a disabled person done with the intent to save the disabled person from suffering.
According to Mackelprang and Salsgiver, "Many medical professionals are convinced that helping people with severe conditions kill themselves is an act of mercy." But it's not just medical professionals who are cutting short or attempting to cut short the lives of those with disabilities.
March 1st is the Disability Day of Mourning, where we remember the lives of the disabled people who were victims of filicide, or murder committed by family members. The media coverage surrounding these murders often portray the perpetrators of the violence as loving family members who just wanted to save their loved one from suffering. What this coverage neglects to mention are the studies that say that disabled people are just as satisfied with their lives as people who are not disabled (Mackelprang and Salsgiver)
Compartmentalization
Boxes are for storing things, not for putting people into. Yet putting people into boxes is exactly what compartmentalization does.
Compartmentalization happens when assumptions about a disabled person are made based on preconceived ideas about a particular disability or disabilities as a whole (Mackelprang and Salsgiver). Another word for these assumptions is 'stereotypes'.
Like other kinds of stereotypes, the ones made about certain disabilities or disabilities as a whole are harmful.
For example, there's the common stereotype of disabled people as objects of pity. At first glance, this stereotype might seem like it benefits disabled people. When people feel sorry for someone else, don't they often try to help? But there are issues with this line of thinking. When made into objects of pity, disabled people are seen as powerless and helpless. (Mackelprang and Salsgiver) Their ability to make decisions, their very independence, and their personal strengths are then doubted. It creates excuses to take away a disabled person's autonomy and independence.
Another example of containment is the popular trope of the disabled or disfigured villain. Three disabled or disfigured villains from childhood stories you likely remember are:
Scar from the Lion King
Hook from Peter Pan
Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (Lotso) from Toy Story 3
Then there are other characters, like:The Joker from the Batman franchise
Darth Vader and Kylo Ren from the Star Wars franchise
Dr. Poison from Wonder Woman
That's hardly touching on villainous characters with mental health issues.
The stereotype of the disabled or disfigured villain is damaging by presenting disabled people as outcasts, socially deviant, manipulative, and evil. And when the few portrayals of disabled people are limited to roles as pitiable things or evil incarnate, that increases unconscious negative mental associations with disability.
These are far from the only assumptions people make about disabled people.
There's the assumption that disabled people can't have sex, and can't have good sex.
There's the stereotype of the disabled, lazy moocher. Accessibility features are seen as instruments of laziness or special privileges instead of as the equalizers they are. And this particular stereotype leads us to the next category of ways ableism shows up: Blaming the Victim.
Blaming the Victim
'Blaming the Victim' happens when disabled people are blamed for their disability or their struggles associated with having a disability. The blame can come from internal and external sources.
Externally, it's when a person in position of authority or respect blames the injured or disabled person for whatever has happened outside of their control.
In the medical world, this can show up as medical professionals blaming a disabled person for not recovering or rehabilitating to their satisfaction, instead of placing the blame on a failure of the process or structure of rehabilitation. It can also look like a medical professional's failure to investigate or treat a health issue because of a patient's weight or disability.
The most perfect example of victim blaming in politics comes from the odious Mo Brooks, who once said in support of the repeal of Obamacare:
"It will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher healthcare costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy."
This quote insinuates that every person who is disabled is disabled because of their negligence or personal neglect and that they are therefore unworthy of healthcare. The idea that anyone is unworthy of care is fucked up. Yet there are many disabilities that are highly stigmatized because of the impression that they did something to deserve it.
Victim blaming can also come from family members and friends, or be found in the media we consume. One example of this kind of ableism from family or friends is fatphobia, where comments like, "You would feel so much better if you just lost a little weight," are intended to be helpful, but are actually harmful.
Denial of Disability
'Denial of disability' refers to more than just the denial of a person's disabilities from other people. It also refers to two internalized forms of ableism: one where disabled people pretend to not be disabled or to not have as severe of a disability in order to reap able-bodied privileges; and another where disabled people "redefine their disabilities in a 'nondisabled' way" (Mackelprang and Salsgiver).
When disabled people pretend to not be disabled or to have a less severe disability in order to better fit in with nondisabled peers or to receive able-bodied privileges, it comes at a great cost. This facade requires enormous amounts of physical and psychological energy to maintain. For the few disabled people who 'make it', denial is often a big part of how that comes into being.
Internalized ableism in the form of denial acts as a defense mechanism, enabling the person to accept themselves when disability is viewed as "aberrant, nonspiritual, and unnatural" both internally and by society (Mackelprang and Salsgiver).
When disabled people redefine their disabilities in a 'nondisabled way', such as Disability as Superpower, it can cause more harm than good.
One example of Disability as Superpower that is often portrayed in popular media is the trope of the 'Blind Weaponmaster' (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlindWeaponmaster) You've seen it before, the blind character whose senses are heightened to the point that they now have superhuman sensing abilities and can fight better than most sighted people. Think "The Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington. The problem with tropes like this is that these superhuman abilities begin to be expected by people who are unfamiliar with these disabilities, putting pressure on the disabled person to live up to these unrealistic expectations while completely ignoring their needs.
The End, For Now
Ableism is a pervasive form of discrimination. It operates silently, much like the harmful effects of microplastics, yet its consequences are profound and far-reaching. By understanding ableism and its manifestations, we can begin to dismantle the barriers it creates and work towards a more inclusive and equitable society. It's time to recognize the harmful stereotypes, biases, and systemic injustices that perpetuate ableism, and take action to create a world where everyone, regardless of ability, is valued and respected.
Resources
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ableism
Disability: A Diversity Model Approach in Human Service Practice by Romel W. Mackelprang and Richard O. Salsgiver (https://archive.org/details/disabilitydivers0000mack_d1n7)
"Assume That I Can" ad:
Blind Weaponmaster https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlindWeaponmaster
Demographic, Experiential, and Temporal Variation in Ableism by Harder, Jenna A. and Chopik, William J.: https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12341
6 Ways Responses to Covid-19 Have Been Ableist and Why It Matters https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2022/01/31/6-ways-responses-to-covid-19-have-been-ableist-and-why-it-matters/?sh=297e91ea6129
CDC Director Apologizes To Disability Advocates For ‘Hurtful’ Comments https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2022/01/18/cdc-director-apologizes-to-disability-advocates-for-hurtful-comments/29661/
Disability Advocates Alarmed By CDC’s New COVID Guidelines https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2024/03/05/disability-advocates-alarmed-by-cdcs-new-covid-guidelines/30769/
Worldometers US Coronavirus Watcher: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
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