Prejudice:

Prejudice is defined as a preconceived judgment or opinion; an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. Prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, or their supposed characteristics.

Individual prejudice in and of itself cannot determine where people with disabilities live work, shop, play, worship, get health care, or get their education.

Those things are determined by institutions.

When prejudice has institutional backing, it becomes ableism.

People often fear that ableism cannot be solved. Many see stopping individual acts of meanness as the way to solve ableism. When viewed that way, ableism would be next to impossible to eliminate. When viewed in light of institutional change, the elimination of ableism seems possible. Ableism was built into institutions, and anything that was built can be dismantled.

Institutions:

A society is composed of a great number of institutions. They may be private or public, but all are interconnected through their common task of helping the society to function. Institutions give expression to the organized activities of a community and serve it’s various needs.

The institutions in our society are countless, yet each purports to serve a specific clientele. Governmental institutions claim as their clientele all citizens within their jurisdiction. Each state replicates the federal image with offices and agencies. Local municipalities do likewise; each city hall, library, police department, and hospital is a public institution.

Each and every business and industry in our nation, large and small, is an institution, whether factory, office, or retail store. Within the communications industry, each newspaper, radio and TV station, magazine, and computer network is an institution. Every school and university, each sports team and franchise, every art gallery, dance studio, religious organization, and a thousand more groups are institutions… Theoretically, each institution represents and collectively acts in the name of those whom it claims as its members, its owner, its clientele, or its citizens.

Able-bodied privilege:

We often see how disadvantage based on perceived ability puts people with disabilities at a disadvantage. It is important that we also see the corollary of able-bodied advantage.  These advantages may be intentional or unintentional.  However, once those of us who are non-disabled become aware of able-bodied privilege, we must become newly accountable to work alongside people with disabilities to eliminate ableism.

Ableism:

Ableism is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate, and exploit others based on a belief in superior physical or mental attributes, identity, or supposed ability. Ableism is more than just a personal attitude; it is the systematic or institutional form of that attitude.

1. to take apart

2. to deprive or strip of apparatus, trappings, defenses etc.

What have you done today to dismantle institutional ableism? 

Right now you can visit our discussion forums. 

Much gratitude to the Baton Rouge YWCA's "Dialoge on Race," Maxine Crump, and the writing of Joseph Barndt for contributing to our thinking and practice in a great many, vital ways.