How does Ableism work?
Ableism is when able-bodied people often do not realise their privilege because social structures favour their bodies.
Ableism exists when society and social norms are constructed to favour people without any physical or mental disabilities, and such a way of life is considered as the ‘normal’ (What is Able-Bodied Privilege? 2017).
Oftentimes, we simply assume that every individual has as much access and opportunities that we do, which results in discrimination against persons with disabilities. For example, if we look around our college campus or offices, can we say that a person using a wheelchair can access every room/area that we able-bodied people can?
Lack of access to classrooms may not just interfere with attending classes, it could also lead to the withdrawal of admission, feeling of being left out and loss of equal access to education for persons with disabilities.
Another example is attendance. When we think of attendance-based marks in our educational institutions, can we call it a fair system of evaluation for someone with a chronic illness? Here, too, the student may lose out because of their physical condition, and may doubt their worthiness; it will also curtail their access to and participation in a merit-based education system. Taking a cue from such instances, we will try to understand in this article what is this ‘ableist privilege’ and how it operates in different ways.
How is ableism carried on in society?
There are many ways in which ableism is perpetuated in society, be it in our buildings, public spaces and parks, or in our laws, social norms and ideas. Some of the ways in which this privilege is blindly carried forward are as follows:
Discriminatory policies and social norms
Until recently, most policies for persons with a disability were from a ‘welfarist’ perspective, rather than policies serving their fundamental right (Ghai, 2002). ‘Welfarist’ policies are those where the State ‘grants’ some special provisions, like free healthcare, free education, unemployment allowances, etc, to ‘help’ its citizens. Taking such a perspective towards persons with disabilities is akin to doing charity. It robs them of their fundamental rights — to life, to equal opportunities, and to freedom.
One reason for such a stance could have been because these policies were mostly conceived by able-bodied policymakers. The rights granted to persons with disabilities latently conveyed a sense of ‘pity’, rather than a sense of guarantee of basic rights, which every citizen is supposed to enjoy in a democracy. Policies, from such an ableist viewpoint, make disability a medical issue, rather than a social and cultural one.
Langdon (2017), recounting her own experience, argues that a person with a disability is not ‘vulnerable’ by themselves, but is turned so, by the able-bodied constructions. Failure to include their needs at the early stages of planning, she states, is a form of social exclusion, because we are excluding them from active and equal participation in everyday public life.
Moreover, the able-bodied medical view of a person with disability forms the entirety of how their identities are perceived (as ‘sick’ or ‘weak’ individuals with medical/physical conditions), negating ideas of them having sexual desires, desires for friendships or professional achievements, and the likes. Thus, disability is not a medical/physical issue. It is socially constructed through the exclusion of persons with disabilities from our policies and normative structures.
Besides direct social exclusion, the ideas propagated in able-bodied societies are also discriminatory. Ghai (2002) elaborated on how Indian culture perpetuates the idea of disability as a flaw or a sin. Many communities believe persons with disability to have ‘earned the wrath of God’, or to be paying the price of past karma. These beliefs reflect the inactions of the able-bodied people, who would choose to indulge in ‘good karma’ by donating their clothes and other materials to persons with disability.
But actions that are considered by able-bodied people as ‘good karma’ or benevolent may also latently carry their views of disability as being lesser; thus, feeding onto the process of othering persons with disabilities. For example, able-bodied people often talk to adult persons in wheelchairs with a shrill ‘kind’ voice as if they were talking to babies. Such infantilization is also formed discrimination against persons with disabilities.
The infrastructure: issue of accessibility
The infrastructure around us is designed to exclude persons with disabilities from accessing it. For example, most buildings have stairs, making it inaccessible or inconvenient for people using wheelchairs, crutches and walkers.
As Baishya and Sharma (2019) point out, in the capital city of Delhi itself, only 71 out of 560 audited buildings are accessible to most persons with disabilities. In the same research, it was found that 94% of healthcare facilities do not have adequate accessibility either.
When we talk about infrastructure, we must also note that the majority of public transport systems are designed around able-bodied people only — the public buses, metros and trains have stairs and/or their carriages are too narrow for wheelchairs. The autos and cabs cannot accommodate people in wheelchairs.
One may say that people using wheelchairs may be carried and placed on the cab/auto seats while adjusting their wheelchairs in the vehicle’s trunk. But this suggestion points at another instance of ableism: the negation of private space. To put it in context, imagine strangers at airports, bus stations, hotels, etc., carrying you in their arms and placing you on your seats.
This may be a situation of extreme discomfort for you and you may feel infantilised as well. So, to suggest that persons with disabilities undergo this ordeal at almost every public space, instead of constructing those public spaces to be more accessible, is an instance of ableism.
Construction of infrastructure and public spaces accommodating the needs of persons with disabilities is therefore essential. A lot of the time, such infrastructure is beneficial not just to them, but for other people too. This is called the curb-cut effect. Noticed for the first time at Kalamazoo, Mich in 1975, the curb cut effect refers to a situation where certain structures, policies and considerations, made especially for persons with disabilities, benefit everyone (Blackwell, 2017).
For example, in the US, when ramps were built in several public buildings and spaces to make them more accessible to persons with disabilities, other people benefited from it too — new parents could push baby prams around, one could wheel around their luggage, workers could push heavy carts, and so on. Thus, the benefits of inclusivity reach out to everyone.
The other kind of ableism
There are certain kinds of disabilities that are not so visible; those which are not overtly seen, such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue, mental disorders, developmental disorders, epilepsy, diabetes, etc. (Disabled world, 2020). While the visible-invisible dichotomy is blurred, the ableist practices carried out against them is clear.
Arielle (2019), underlining her experience, talks about how people with invisible-ish disabilities face harassment from able-bodied people because their disability is often not “seen” on the body, as objectively.
When disability is ‘invisible’, able-bodied people often throw statements like ‘you don’t look sick, or ‘show me how you are disabled’. The idea that disability always needs to be ‘seen’ feeds on a stereotype of what ‘sick people’ should look like and how they should behave (thereby also equating ‘sickness’ with a disability, and vice-versa).
Drawing from her experience, she contends that many people with ‘invisible disabilities are required to perform a kind of “compulsory able-bodiedness” for the comforts of able-bodied people, even if it brings them great pain. For example, a person who may have a limp may force themselves to bear great pain and try to walk without it. The most prominent reason for this lies in how disability is viewed as shameful or a flaw, and if one “can fit into the able-bodied society”, they should try their best to do so.
However, there exists a paradox. Often, in order to save themselves from being admonished for using spaces “reserved for persons with disabilities”, one may have to exaggerate their limp or try to show their invisible disability on their bodies. But this too is an attempt to fulfil an ableist perception of disability; lest they should be questioned.
But to think of it, it is the able-bodied people who decide and set the norms of sickness and disability; to which they expect persons with disability to conform. Additionally, any concessions offered by the able-bodied policies are to be received by persons with disabilities with gratefulness, as if the need for such a concession did not arise from the exclusion of persons with disabilities from the public domain, in the first place.
Because of ableist privileges, able-bodied people not only fail to recognise the many faces of disabilities but also punish people who are not ‘disabled enough’ to earn ‘their pity’. This insensitivity is clearly the responsibility of able-bodied people to bear.
What can able-bodied people do?
We need to realise that there is a cycle to the ableism that exists around us. Able-bodied people have greater access to education and resources because these social capitals are constructed to benefit them. And because they have such access, they also have greater opportunities and privileges to existing in spaces of policymaking, infrastructure creation, governing institutions, and so on. Owing to a lack of reflexivity on their part, the social structures that continue to be produced are majorly ableist in nature.
Yes, we need to reflect. We need to reflect on our actions, our thoughts, our spaces, our ideas. We need to reflect on everything; try to look at things by keeping a check on ableist privileges. Besides reflection, we need to influence policy decisions and call out ableist practices of our near and dear ones. By doing this, we are not ‘helping’ persons with disabilities. We are trying to avoid stealing away their basic human rights and then packaging them as ‘donations’ served right back to them.
Views are the writer’s own and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Volunteers Collective.
Written by Mitakshara Medhi. Mitakshara is a member of the Volunteers Collective.
References and Bibliography
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Langdon, T.L. (2017, October 3rd). ‘Public’ Transit For ‘Every-Body’? Invisabilizing Bodies Of Difference. Society and Space. Retrieved from https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/public-transit-for-every-body-invisabilizing-bodies-of-difference.
Parisi, K. (2020, July 27th). What is the curb cut effect? 5 ways disability rights benefit everyone. Today. Retrieved from https://www.today.com/health/what-ableism-5-things-able-bodied-people-don-t-realize-t187771.
The Curb Cut Effect Explained. (2018, September 18th). Retrieved from https://verbit.ai/the-curb-cut-effect-explained/.
What is Able-Bodied Privilege? — Definition & Examples. (2017, December 22). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-able-bodied-privilege-definition-examples.html.
