Ableism

Ableism is discrimination, prejudice, and systemic disadvantage aimed at people with disabilities. It rests on the assumption that able-bodied and neurotypical ways of functioning are normal and superior, and it treats disability as a deviation to be fixed or hidden. Ableism operates at many levels, from personal attitudes and slurs to buildings, workplaces, and institutions designed without disabled people in mind. Within LGBTQ+ spaces it often shows up as inaccessible venues, events with no ASL interpreters or captions, sensory-overwhelming environments, and the sidelining of disabled queer voices. Disability justice advocates, many of them queer, frame disability not as a personal failing but as a mismatch between people and the barriers society builds around them.