End Ableism and Disablism

Here are some of the main issues with ableism and disablism:

• Promotes discrimination against people with disabilities by valuing able-bodiedness as the normal standard. This can lead to prejudice, stereotyping, and exclusion.
• Upholds the idea that people with disabilities need to be “fixed” or made “able” to have full worth in society. Fails to accept disabilities as part of human diversity.
• Assumes people with disabilities are inferior, defective, or defined solely by their disability. Reduces people to their condition.
• Leads to inaccessibility in physical spaces, technologies, policies, and programs that exclude people with disabilities.
• Perpetuates stigma and negative attitudes towards disabilities that can result in bullying, harassment, and violence.
• Trivializes or ignores the lived experiences of people with disabilities. Discounts their voices and perspectives.
• Imposes unfair expectations on how people with disabilities should look, communicate, or behave.

-Promotes misconceptions that disabilities are always visible/obvious or that visible disabilities are worse than invisible ones.

-Causes damage to mental health, relationships, and socioeconomic outcomes for those with disabilities due to marginalization.

The ultimate issue is that ableism upholds the flawed notion that being able-bodied is superior. Disrupting ableism requires embracing disability as a valued aspect of diversity.