ABLEISM COREHats off* to hunter who provided advice impact scenarios*: the declaration of hat removal is metaphorical. I don’t actually intend to remove the source of all my power.Special thanks to the hat for feeding me unnatural power of the cosmos

Also thanks to ScottyP for some of the aff answers

ABLEISM BAD

ABLEISM K 1NC EXAMPLEReforms of surveillance fail to address its hidden continuing effect on disabled individuals. The surveillance state sees the disabled as different and therefore a threat, and manipulates violence against them. This affirmation of ableist surveillance excludes disabled bodies from the debate spaceSaltes 13 (Natasha Saltes, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Queen's University. Surveillance Studies Network: “’Abnormal’ Bodies on the Borders of Inclusion” published November, 2013. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/abnormal/abnormal)TheFedoraSurveillance Studies has made significant contributions to discussions on human rights by documenting practices of discrimination based on characteristics such as race (Poudrier 2003; Glover 2008, 2009; Browne 2012), gender (Monahan 2009; Koskela 2012), and class (Gilliom 2001; Maki 2011). Yet surveillance practices associated with the embodiment of impairment and the experience of disability have been largely ignored . This omission is perplexing given the emphasis that Surveillance Studies places on the normalizing technologies of power used to monitor, control and regulate behaviours and mobilities of certain bodies. The absence of a discussion on impairment and disability in Surveillance Studies is also curious given the prominence accorded to the monitoring and regulation of the body in relation to social norms in the work of Michel Foucault. While Foucault has examined the biopolitical arrangements through which health and welfare of the population is advanced, there is a dearth of literature that examines the connection between impairment, disability, surveillance and biopolitics. To date, the research agenda of leading disability scholars have explored the myriad ways people with impairments are subjected to social exclusion, inequality and oppression and how these practices are framed within biomedical perspectives of disability (see, for example, Oliver 1990a, 1990b; Rioux and Valentine 2006; Barnes and Mercer 2010; Oliver and Barnes 2012). Few have ventured toward an analysis of how the biomedical perspective of disability is used to rationalize biopolitics and to sustain a surveillance regime that excludes people with impairments. 1 This paper seeks to address this gap by introducing the concept of ‘disability surveillance’. Building from a widely accepted definition of surveillance proposed by Lyon (2007), I define disability surveillance as the practice of collecting, documenting, monitoring and classifying personal data that pertains to the embodied characteristics and attributes of impairment. In order to avoid conceptualizing disability surveillance in purely disempowering terms, my aim is to highlight the ways in which surveillant practices oscillate between biopolitical practices of social control that exclude people with impairments in order to prevent perceived economic ‘risk’ and practices of counting and classifying people with impairments in order to promote rights. I argue that this paradox stems from contradictory and inconsistent definitions of disability used by various sectors of the Canadian government. When disability surveillance is carried out in ways that pathologize and exclude people with impairments in order to limit access to resources and/or citizenship, disability tends to be defined in terms of a functional limitation and people with impairments are seen as those with non-normative bodies that pose a ‘risk’. Disability surveillance that operates on perceived notions of risk are carried out under biopolitical rationalizations that aim to promote the health and prosperity of the population through social sorting processes that involve identifying and categorizing ‘abnormality’ through the collection of medical data. In identifying the operation of biopolitics in Canadian immigration policy, I look specifically at s. 38(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, commonly referred to as the ‘excessive demand clause’, as an exclusionary mechanism of power that denies immigration applicants with certain health conditions and impairment on the presumption that they would imikempose undue costs on health and social services. I also look at the ways in which biometric technology at the border contributes to the experience of disability by assigning the identity of ‘abnormal’ to people with

impairments who do not conform to the system’s ableist design. However, in order to improve accessibility, remove disabling barriers and develop adequate programs, services, and accommodation it is necessary to measure and count the prevalence and impact of impairment. When conducted for this purpose, disability surveillance operates according to the principles and goals of the disability rights movement and is conducted according to a definition of disability that does not reduce disability to the body, but instead recognizes the ways in which social constructions and processes contribute to disability. This presents a paradox whereby the techniques of disability surveillance become a venue for both exclusion and empowerment. Disability surveillance reinforces ableist norms, but also provides the tools to change them. This paper problematizes normalization and definitions of disability grounded in medical discourse for its legitimization of the perception of abnormal that is used to rationalize exclusionary biopolitical agendas. I conclude with a theoretical argument that aims to resolve the paradox of preventing ‘risk’ and promoting rights by applying Ojakangas’ (2005) notion of an affirmative biopolitics of care.Continued ableist assumptions in the academic space destroy educationHehir ‘7 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraNegative cultural attitudes toward disability can undermine opportunities for all students to participate fully in school and society. When Ricky was born deaf, his parents were determined to raise him to function in the “normal” world. Ricky learned to read lips and was not taught American Sign Language. He felt comfortable within the secure world of his family, but when he entered his neighborhood school, he grew less confident as he struggled to understand what his classmates seemed to grasp so easily. Susan, a child with dyslexia, entered kindergarten with curiosity about the world around her, a lively imagination, and a love of picture books. Although her school provided her with individual tutoring and other special education services, it also expected her to read grade-level texts at the same speed as her nondisabled peers. Susan fell further and further behind. By 6th grade, she hated school and avoided reading. These two examples illustrate how society's pervasive negative attitude about disability—which I term ableism—often makes the world unwelcoming and inaccessible for people with disabilities. An ableist perspective asserts that it is preferable for a child to read print rather than Braille, walk rather than use a wheelchair, spell independently rather than use a spell-checker, read written text rather than listen to a book on tape, and hang out with nondisabled kids rather than with other disabled kids. Certainly, given a human-made world designed with the nondisabled in mind, children with disabilities gain an advantage if they can perform like their nondisabled peers. A physically disabled child who receives the help he or she needs to walk can move more easily in a barrier-filled environment. A child with a mild hearing loss who has been given the amplification and speech therapy he or she needs may function well in a regular classroom. But ableist assumptions become dysfunctional when the education and development services provided to disabled children focus on their disability to the exclusion of all else. From an early age, many people with disabilities encounter the view that disability is negative and tragic and that “overcoming” disability is the only valued result (Ferguson & Asch, 1989; Rousso, 1984). In education, considerable evidence shows that unquestioned ableist assumptions are harming disabled students and contributing to unequal outcomes (see Allington &

McGill-Franzen, 1989; Lyon et al., 2001). School time devoted to activities that focus on changing disability may take away from the time needed to learn academic material . In addition, academic deficits may be exacerbated by the ingrained prejudice against performing activities in “different” ways that might be more efficient for disabled people—such as reading Braille, using sign language, or using text-to-speech software to read. The Purpose of Special Education What should the purpose of special education be? In struggling with this issue, we can find guidance in the rich and varied narratives of people with disabilities and their families. Noteworthy among these narratives is the work of

Adrienne Asch, a professor of bioethics at Yeshiva University in New York who is blind. In her analysis of stories that adults with disabilities told about their childhood experiences (Ferguson & Asch, 1989), Asch identified common themes in their parents' and educators' responses to their disability. Some of the ad ults responded with excessive concern and sheltering. Others conveyed to children, through silence or denial, that nothing was “wrong.” For example, one young woman with significant vision loss related that she was given no alternative but to use her limited vision even though this restriction caused her significant academic problems. Another common reaction was to make ill-conceived attempts to fix the disability. For example, Harilyn Rousso, an accomplished psychotherapist with cerebral palsy, recounts, My mother was quite concerned with the awkwardness of my walk. Not only did it periodically cause me to fall but it made me stand out, appear conspicuously different—which she feared would subject me to endless teasing and rejection. To some extent it did. She made numerous attempts over the years of my childhood to have me go to physical therapy and to practice walking “normally” at home. I vehemently refused her efforts. She could not understand why I would not walk straight. (1984, p. 9) In recalling her own upbringing and education, Asch describes a more positive response to disability: I give my parents high marks. They did not deny that I was blind, and did not ask me to pretend that everything about my life was fine. They rarely sheltered. They worked to help me behave and look the way others did without giving me a sense that to be blind—“different”—was shameful. They fought for me to ensure that I lived as full and rich a life as I could. For them, and consequently for me, my blindness was a fact, not a tragedy. It affected them but did not dominate their lives. Nor did it dominate mine. (Ferguson & Asch, 1989, p. 118) Asch's narrative and others (Biklen, 1992) suggest that we can best frame the purpose of special education as minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing the opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in schooling and the community. This framework assumes that most students with disabilities will be integrated into general education and educated within their natural community. It is consistent with the 1997 and 2004 reauthorizations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires that individualized education program (IEP) teams address how the student will gain access to the curriculum and how the school will meet the unique needs that arise out of the student's disability. Finally, this framework embraces the diverse needs of students with various disabilities as well as the individual diversity found among students within each disability group. Falling Short of the Goal Minimizing the impact of disability does not mean making misguided attempts to “cure” disability but rather giving students the supports, skills, and opportunities needed to live as full a life as possible with their disability. Maximizing access requires that school practices recognize the right of students with disabilities to participate fully in the school community—not only in academic programs, but also in sports teams, choruses, clubs, and field trips. A look at common problems encountered by students with low-incidence disabilities, specific learning disabilities, and emotional disturbances illustrates that schools still have a long way to go in fulfilling the purpose of special education. Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities In Adrienne Asch's case, minimizing the impact of her blindness meant learning Braille, developing orientation and mobility skills, and having appropriate accommodations available that gave her access to education. Asch also points out that because of New Jersey's enlightened policies at the time, she could live at home and attend her local school, so she and her family were not required to disrupt their lives to receive the specialized services she needed. Unfortunately, many students today with low-incidence disabilities like blindness and deafness are not afforded the opportunities that Asch had in the early 1950s. Parents sometimes face the choice of sending their children to a local school that is ill equipped to meet their needs or to a residential school with specialized services, thus disrupting normal family life. Parents should not be forced to make this Hobson's choice. Services can be brought to blind and deaf students in typical community settings, and most students can thrive in that environment (Wagner, Black-orby, Cameto, & Newman, 1993; Wagner & Cameto, 2004). It is up to policymakers to ensure that such services are available. Students with Specific Learning Disabilities Because students identified as having learning disabilities are such a large and growing portion of the school population, we might expect that these students would be less likely to be subjected to ableist practices. The available evidence, however, contradicts this assumption. Many students with dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities receive inappropriate instruction that exacerbates their disabilities. For example, instead of making taped books available to these students, many schools require those taught in regular classrooms to handle grade-level or higher text. Other schools do not allow students to use computers when taking exams, thus greatly diminishing some students' ability to produce

acceptable written work. The late disabilities advocate Ed Roberts had polio as a child, which left him dependent on an iron lung. He attended school from home in the 1960s with the assistance of a telephone link. When it was time for graduation, however, the school board planned to deny him a diploma because he had failed to meet the physical education requirement. His parents protested, and Ed eventually graduated (Shapiro, 1994). We can hardly imagine this scenario happening today, given disability law and improved societal attitudes. Yet similar ableist assumptions are at work when schools routinely require students with learning disabilities to read print at grade level to gain access to the curriculum or to meet proficiency levels on high-stakes assessments. Assuming that there is only one “right” way to learn—or to walk, talk, paint, read, and write—is the root of fundamental inequities. Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Students Perhaps no group suffers from negative attitudes more than students who have been identified as having serious emotional disturbance (SED)—and no other subpopulation experiences poorer outcomes. Students with SED drop out of school at more than double the rate of nondisabled students. Only 15 percent pursue higher education, and approximately 50 percent are taught in segregated settings (U.S. Department of Education, 2003; Wagner & Cameto, 2004). For large numbers of students with serious emotional disturbance, their IEPs are more likely to include inappropriate responses to control the most common symptom of their disability—acting-out behavior—than to provide the accommodations and support the students need to be successful in education. Only 50 percent of students with SED receive mental health services, only 30 percent receive social work services, and only 50 percent have behavior management appropriately addressed in their IEPs (Wagner & Cameto, 2004). What do these students typically receive through special education? They are commonly placed in a special classroom or school with other students with similar disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 2003)—often with an uncertified teacher. Placing such students in separate classes without specific behavioral supports, counseling, or an expert teacher is unlikely to work . Substantial evidence, indicates, however, that providing these students with appropriate supports and mental health services can significantly reduce disruptive behavior and improve their learning (Sugai, Sprague, Horner, & Walker, 2000). Such supports are most effective when provided within the context of effective schoolwide discipline approaches, such as the U.S. Department of Education's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program (www.pbis.org).

Schoolwide approaches also produce safer and better-run schools for all students. Guidelines for Special Education Decision Making The goal of minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing opportunities to participate suggests several guidelines for serving students with disabilities.The alternative is to recognize and challenge ableist assumptions in the educational space of debate by rejecting the affHehir ‘7 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraThe U.S. education system has made major strides in improving education opportunities for students with disabilities. More of these students are finishing high school than ever, and record numbers are moving on to employment and higher education (Wagner & Cameto, 2004).

Much of this improvement has taken place because of the work of school leaders throughout the United States.

To continue and expand this progress , however, educators must recognize and challenge the ableist assumptions that still permeate the culture and guide much special education practice. Students with disabilities need carefully constructed, individual instructional programs that

recognize the effects of their disability while creating opportunities for them to learn and fully participate in school and society.

LANGUAGE LINKS

LINK: “LAME”Lame is an ableist slurAaron 15 (Jessi Elana Aaron is an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Florida. The Washington Post: “‘Lame,’ ‘stand up’ and other words we use to insult the disabled without even knowing it” published May 13th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/13/lame-stand-up-and-other-words-we-use-to-insult-the-disabled-without-even-knowing-it/)TheFedoraAs author, multimedia storyteller and wheelchair user Ju Gosling explains, “the oppression and exclusion of disabled people by society is currently enshrined in our language.” Focusing on physical disability, let’s take a closer look at how this happens. Descriptions of the physically disabled Though it may seem easy enough to rid ourselves of the language thought of as offensive at a given moment in time, a glance at the history of such terms makes it clear that erasing words will not erase the social structures behind them. Instead, words referring to disfavored groups tend to go through what psychologist Steven Pinker has called the “euphemism treadmill.” With regard to physical disability, for instance, just in the past few decades, several terms have been run off the track: Since the 8th century, lame was commonly used in everyday speech to describe a physical disability or a limp, before it started to be used as a negative descriptor in the 20th century. With time, this use of lame was abandoned in favor of new terms that had not (yet) acquired such undesirable connotations and were therefore considered less offensive, such as handicapped. But by the 1980s, many abandoned handicapped for disabled, or, influenced by the “people first” movement, people with disabilities. Some hyper-euphemized terms, such as differently-abled and alter-abled, never enjoyed widespread acceptance among disability communities or among the general public. Another term, physically challenged, was both limited in scope and quickly parodied – for example, “vertically challenged” for “short” – and it quickly fell out of common use. Some of these changes coincided with groundbreaking civil rights legislation, like IDEA, a 1975 law that guarantees access to education for children with disabilities, and the ADA, a comprehensive civil rights law, passed in 1990, that prohibits disability-based discrimination and seeks to guarantee equal opportunities for social inclusion for those with disabilities. Nonetheless, social marginalization and poverty remain tied to disability. For this reason, language policing is nothing more than a wild goose chase. Even if it succeeds, without concurrent social change, it’s destined to fail: for every new term that emerges, it will eventually be transformed in everyday speech to mean something negative. New meanings aren’t random At the same time, much media attention has been paid to the use of slurs such as retarded. Similarly, the stigma associated with psychiatric disabilities has left its mark on many words, rendering them insults, such as crazy and insane. So why isn’t more attention being paid to words like lame? In the case of physical disability, once-neutral lame now describes someone who is “inept, naive, easily fooled; spec. unskilled in the fashionable behavior of a particular group, socially inept.” Those who use these expressions tend to try to justify their use in one of two ways. First, disability is (in their view) actually a bad thing. As one blogger explained: It’s not okay to call a coward a pussy, or a bad thing gay, they argue, because there’s nothing bad about having a vagina or being homosexual. But there IS something bad about not being mobile! In fact, it’s no fun at all, just totally miserable. All other things held equal, isn’t it better to be not-lame than lame? (It goes without saying that many people with disabilities would object to having their identity hijacked as the automatic stand-in for all things bad.) Second, it can be argued – and with some legitimacy – that some of these terms no longer generally refer to disability. Languages change. New meanings emerge from old ones. But that’s the point: new meanings are not random. Having undergone a process linguists call semantic bleaching, lame has lost some elements of its meaning over time. While physical impairment is no longer part of its (new) meaning, my study of its use in Time Magazine since 1923 showed that it has retained the social meanings associated with disability in the 20th century: awkwardness, stupidity, femininity, lack of social graces and sophistication, and more. Today’s lame is an attitudinal echo.

LINK: POSTURE BASED METAPHORSMetaphors based on ability to stand and posture are ableistAaron 15 (Jessi Elana Aaron is an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Florida. The Washington Post: “‘Lame,’ ‘stand up’ and other words we use to insult the disabled without even knowing it” published May 13th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/13/lame-stand-up-and-other-words-we-use-to-insult-the-disabled-without-even-knowing-it/)TheFedoraHuman beings tend to construct their world through metaphor. And the human body, a universal experience (everyone has one, after all), is one of the most common bases for the development of new abstract meanings through grammaticalization – the process that forms new parts of grammar as languages change. Not only do we use body parts to create prepositions like inside (that is, “in the side of”) or behind, but we also encode our beliefs about the social meanings of certain body shapes or postures. We undoubtedly prefer the company of the upstanding citizen who stands for something. An upright person who stands proud, standing up to the crooked politicians and their twisted plans, leaving them without a leg to stand on . Our friend should be as straight as an arrow, and never just sit there or take it lying down.

AT “DON’T RESTRICT MY WORDS”Criticism of ableist slurs isn’t the Orwellian suggestion you seem to think it isOmum 14 (Omum22 is the pen name of a writer for the organization Small But Kinda Mighty, a website devoted to information related to ableism and ableist concepts. Small But Kinda Mighty: “Five things to consider before using ableist language” Published August 19th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://smallbutkindamighty.com/2014/08/19/five-things-consider-using-ableist-language/)TheFedoraI’m not stifling free speech. Everyone has the right to use language others consider inappropriate, but if you use it in a public forum I want you to understand its consequences. All I’m asking of everyone is to think before they use terms that stigmatize, offend and do concrete, measurable damage to others. Please don’t dismiss this as political correctness. I’m not advocating the imposition of some sort of Orwellian Newspeak – I’m challenging people to think before they speak (or write) and to reconsider many of the assumptions they have about language. I’m not trying to impose an antiseptic new world order, in fact I’m hoping to encourage people to challenge the current one. I’m not policing tone. I have no problem with people being profane, insulting, judgemental and angry – in fact I’ve written separately about how useful anger is when confronting injustice. When people use ableist terms it doesn’t annoy me, in and of itself. It’s so baked into our everyday language that we have all used words like “idiot”, “insane” and “moron”. What I find upsetting and frustrating is when people are so attached to using harmful language that they insult you if you question its use.

LINK: “CRAZY”“Crazy” is an ableist slurKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraIf you’ve arrived at the conclusion that the word “crazy” is ableist, or at least makes some people uncomfortable, or is commonly misused and overused to the point of losing its meaning, you may be struggling to find substitute words. This post is for you. I’ve put together a list of many words that convey better what you mean when you say “crazy” and the specific usages and contexts where they make sense. And fear not: many of them are colorful, and all of them pack punch. NOTE: these terms are meant to describe and label, not insult. While some of the words I mention could be screamed at a fellow driver who just did something incredibly reckless, this list is meant more for discussion and published writing (including blogs). It’s meant more for the writer who, say, is tempted to call Todd Akin “crazy” for his remarks about rape in 2012, but realizes that might stigmatize people who have mental illnesses and wants a better term. Be careful with the use of ANY of these terms, as they are all controversial in some ways, inappropriate in some contexts, etc. It is not possible to compile a list of perfectly “safe” terms to describe antisocial behavior – what’s recognized as “antisocial” isn’t even the same in every culture or region. Finding the word You’ll have to ask yourself what you actually mean in order to figure out how to convey your thought to someone who’s not living in your head with you. I’m not going to get into every possible usage of crazy, i.e., “the weather’s crazy all over the place.” I’m sure you can figure out alternative terms and phrases for those things on your own. I am going to cover some replacements for “crazy” in the context of describing human beings. Because mental illness is not well-understood (and most people receive little or no education in it, even with what’s considered a good liberal arts education), it can be a struggle to express better how someone’s just plain “crazy.” This list will help.Crazy doesn’t mean irrationalKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraInstead of crazy Someone who disagrees with you for reasons that make no sense is not necessarily “crazy.” They may be illogical, irrational, misleading, taking an emotional position, lying, not making sense, not thinking, incapable of critical thinking, an asshat, an assclown, a dipshit, beyond irrelevant, rationalizing, arguing an unsound position, arguing without foundation. They may also be naive, mistaken, confused, misled, misinformed, uninformed, ignorant. What they’re saying may be absurd, nonsensical, half-ass, ridiculous, ludicrous, full of shit, bullshit.Crazy doesn’t mean rudeKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraSomeone who acts like an asshole may or may not be mentally ill – neurotypical people are fully equipped to be assholes. They may be entitled, violent, aggressive,

toxic, rude, mean, cruel, deranged [see note here], selfish, having delusions of grandeur, inconsiderate, full of shit, a user, a jerk, an asshole. Modifying these words with adverbs or incorporating them into colorful phrases – “farcically entitled” or “too selfish to live” – makes them far more powerful and memorable in written language than “crazy.” Other choices include: incapable of getting along with anyone, thinks so highly of him/herself, refuses to listen to anybody, never admits s/he’s wrong, doesn’t care about anyone but him/herself. That’s really just scratching the surface. There are so many ways to vibrantly describe someone’s bad behavior with pinpoint accuracy – and that accuracy gives your words power.Crazy doesn’t mean dirty or criminal(This card doesn’t link to racist language)Kesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraSomeone who acts like an asshole may or may not be mentally ill – neurotypical people are fully equipped to be assholes. They may be entitled, violent, aggressive, toxic, rude, mean, cruel, deranged [see note here], selfish, having delusions of grandeur, inconsiderate, full of shit, a user, a jerk, an asshole. Modifying these words with adverbs or incorporating them into colorful phrases – “farcically entitled” or “too selfish to live” – makes them far more powerful and memorable in written language than “crazy.” Other choices include: incapable of getting along with anyone, thinks so highly of him/herself, refuses to listen to anybody, never admits s/he’s wrong, doesn’t care about anyone but him/herself. That’s really just scratching the surface. There are so many ways to vibrantly describe someone’s bad behavior with pinpoint accuracy – and that accuracy gives your words power. Vile. Vile is a great word that people don’t use enough. Disgusting. Implies they’re dirty. Will really, really offend people who value their social status. Scum, unworthy, bottom-feeder, turd, vomitous, a little piece of shit, a piece of filth, inhuman, ugly (as long as context clarifies you’re not critiquing appearance). Lacking empathy. This is far more precise than “narcissistic”, and applies to far more of these types of people. Criminal, but only when used against someone of higher social standing, like a banker or rich child abuser, who thinks his status protects him from consequences. (The word “criminal” can be problematic in its legal usage, given that what’s defined as “crime” for a less privileged group is often defined as a misdemeanor or even non-event when, say, someone like George W. Bush does it.) Narcissistic. Please use this one correctly. It’s not synonymous with ordinary selfishness. Narcissists are what we used to call “psychopaths.” If you actually know a thing or two about narcissism, from having studied it or lived with it, you can use this one. Don’t bother telling someone he’s a narcissist: he’ll just be happy you’re talking about him. Rape apologists. This term can start a riot online if you apply it to people who are rationalizing the activities of rapists, or blaming victims of rape. Much stronger than “crazy.” It’s like racism: people are happy to engage in it, but they sure don’t like getting the label applied.

“Crazy” means having a psychiatric disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraCrazy Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

AT “CRAZY” USAGE INEV.Multiple alternatives to misuse of the word “crazy” existKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraIf you’ve arrived at the conclusion that the word “crazy” is ableist, or at least makes some people uncomfortable, or is commonly misused and overused to the point of losing its meaning, you may be struggling to find substitute words. This post is for you. I’ve put together a list of many words that convey better what you mean when you say “crazy” and the specific usages and contexts where they make sense. And fear not: many of them are colorful, and all of them pack punch. NOTE: these terms are meant to describe and label, not insult. While some of the words I mention could be screamed at a fellow driver who just did something incredibly reckless, this list is meant more for discussion and published writing (including blogs). It’s meant more for the writer who, say, is tempted to call Todd Akin “crazy” for his remarks about rape in 2012, but realizes that might stigmatize people who have mental illnesses and wants a better term. Be careful with the use of ANY of these terms, as they are all controversial in some ways, inappropriate in some contexts, etc. It is not possible to compile a list of perfectly “safe” terms to describe antisocial behavior – what’s recognized as “antisocial” isn’t even the same in every culture or region. Finding the word You’ll have to ask yourself what you actually mean in order to figure out how to convey your thought to someone who’s not living in your head with you. I’m not going to get into every possible usage of crazy, i.e., “the weather’s crazy all over the place.” I’m sure you can figure out alternative terms and phrases for those things on your own. I am going to cover some replacements for “crazy” in the context of describing human beings. Because mental illness is not well-understood (and most people receive little or no education in it, even with what’s considered a good liberal arts education), it can be a struggle to express better how someone’s just plain “crazy.” This list will help. Instead of crazy Someone who disagrees with you for reasons that make no sense is not necessarily “crazy.” They may be illogical, irrational, misleading, taking an emotional position, lying, not making sense, not thinking, incapable of critical thinking, an asshat, an assclown, a dipshit, beyond irrelevant, rationalizing, arguing an unsound position, arguing without foundation. They may also be naive, mistaken, confused, misled, misinformed, uninformed, ignorant. What they’re saying may be absurd, nonsensical, half-ass, ridiculous, ludicrous, full of shit, bullshit.

LUNATIC“Lunatic” and words stemming from it refer to mental disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraLoony/Loony Bin Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities. Lunatic Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

INSANEInsane can’t apply to non-peopleKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraWhat about insane, the obvious substitute for crazy? Well, aside from having a decidedly more diagnostic feel than “crazy”, it’s otherwise identical. Even when describing ideas rather than people, you should use one of the substitutes discussed above.“Insanity” refers to psychiatric disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraInsane or Insanity Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

PERSONALITY DISORDERSNPD/ASPD doesn’t mean devoid of empathyKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraDon’t armchair diagnose real people. The vast majority of you deeply overestimate your skills in that area and will just make an asshole of yourselves. Those of you who actually do know what you’re talking about – well, it could still be considered defamation, and thar’s big bucks in them thar lawsuits. If, for example, you think it’s vital that people realize a particular politician might be literally devoid of empathy and conscience (and I think these things are important), the best way to say it is: “Her behavior demonstrates a lack of empathy” or whatever rather than saying “I think she has NPD/ASPD.”

IDIOT/STUPID/MORON/OTHER WAYS OF SAYING “NOT SMART”

“Idiot” and “stupid” are ableist slursOmum 14 (Omum22 is the pen name of a writer for the organization Small But Kinda Mighty, a website devoted to information related to ableism and ableist concepts. Small But Kinda Mighty: “Five things to consider before using ableist language” Published August 19th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://smallbutkindamighty.com/2014/08/19/five-things-consider-using-ableist-language/)TheFedoraOne person who engaged with me on twitter took the view that in describing Rob Ford as an “idiot” and as “stupid”, he was merely being factually descriptive. I see this an awful lot and in my view it’s one of the most insidious forms of ableism. We see it everywhere, this idea that people who are “smart” are somehow better, more superior than others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of education and completely deplore ignorance. I’m talking about how certain people assume that others who do not share their views are therefore intellectually inferior. The Fords play on this to rally people to their cause – when they talk about “downtown elites” and “lefties” the dog-whistle they are blowing is to tell their supporters, “hey, these people think they are better and smarter than you”. It builds resentment and it’s something that we inflame and reinforce every time we accuse the Fords and their supporters of stupidity.“Moron” refers to intellectually disabled peopleBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraMoron(ic) Refers to people with intellectual disabilities.

“Daft” refers to psychiatrically disabledBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraDaft Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities. “Idiot” and “imbecile” mean intellectually disabledBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraIdiot(ic) Refers to people with intellectual disabilities. Imbecile Refers to people with intellectual disabilities.

SIMPLETON“Simpleton” is used to mock individuals with intellectual disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraSimpleton Refers to people with intellectual disabilities.

PSYCHOPATH/PSYCHONOTE:Please don’t say abbreviating “psychoanalysis K” to “psycho” is ableist. In that context it’s being used as a neutral noun, not a derogatory term.

Narcissism doesn’t mean PsychopathyKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraNarcissistic. Please use this one correctly. It’s not synonymous with ordinary selfishness. Narcissists are what we used to call “psychopaths.” If you actually know a thing or two about narcissism, from having studied it or lived with it, you can use this one. Don’t bother telling someone he’s a narcissist: he’ll just be happy you’re talking about him.

“Psycho” means having mental disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraPsycho Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities. Psychopath(ic) Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities. Psycho(tic) Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

SUICIDE METAPHORS BADAssociating suicide with mental disability is ableistStevens 7/24 (Danielle Stevens is co-founder and editor-in-chief of This Bridge Called Our Health, an online healing space for women and femmes of color. For Harriet: “We Must Change the Ableist Language Surrounding Sandra Bland's Death” published July 24th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.forharriet.com/2015/07/we-must-change-ableist-language.html#axzz3gw69D8jc)TheFedoraI think some of the discourse emerging from these # IfIDieInPoliceCustody and #WhatHappenedToSandraBland conversations are dangerously limited. Folks are saying “Sandra Bland was mentally sound” and “Black women like her would never commit suicide”, etc. Not only are we upholding precarious and dehumanizing ‘strong black woman’ archetypes that neglect to hold Black women in the fullness and breadth that we embody, but our failure to operate within a mental health & disability justice framework by making the assertion that Sandra Bland was ‘mentallly sound’ in order to prove that she did not commit suicide is a dangerous narrative that both devalues black people who navigate mental health difficulties and trauma and also erases their/our narratives from the conversation. To suggest that Sandra Bland was not the type of person to commit suicide results not only in the absolving of any accountability/responsibility police have in leading people to committing suicide, but can also lead to a really victim blaming narrative of ‘she did it to herself”. An empire of white supremacy and police terror predicated upon anti-black racism killed Sandra Bland. Being a black woman in the United States who is living through inherited and embodied instances of state-induced trauma for lifetimes is what killed Sandra Bland. The carefully calculated last moments of Sandra Bland’s life of getting pulled over for a minor traffic violation on her way to work, being brutalized by law enforcement officers, and subsequently seized and held in captivity for being a Black woman is what killed Sandra Bland. THE STATE DID THIS TO HER. Whether she committed suicide or not THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE. In discussions around Sandra Bland, it is imperative to hold nuanced conversations that address the pervasive murders against black women in police custody, while also destigmatizing people who are subject to suicide and recognizing the systemic forms of violence that lead people to make these decisions. Some black women don’t just wake up one day with mental health difficulties while the prized black women are strong, resilient, and beyond the impact of white supremacist state sanctioned violence. Black woman are not the curators of white supremacy and misogynoir, we are the targets. We can bring attention to the state-sanctioned violence of police murders against black women in custody while also understanding suicide as a manifestation of structural violence that is delicately crafted by a abusive sociopolitical context that is obscenely anti-black, wildly misogynist, and buttressed upon legacies of misogynoir.

Disabled individuals are particularly vulnerable to a culture that encourages their self-hatredHaller 97 (Beth Haller is Professor of Journalism/New Media and the Graduate Director of the Communication Management master’s program in the Department of Mass Communication & Communication Studies at Towson University in Maryland. Example: The volatile issue of assisted suicide. In January 1997, several hundred people with disabilities and their advocates stood before the U.S. Supreme Court in protest of assisted suicide deaths of people with disabilities. This life-or-death issue for the disability community was ripe for in-depth news media coverage. The event did draw coverage by USA Today, CNN, the Washington Post, and "Nightline." The implications of this type of media attention need to be studied. The assisted suicide issue and its media coverage illustrate the ramifications of news media images in the real lives of people with disabilities. If news media images reinforce a notion that disability is a fate worse than death , then assisted suicide might be shown in a positive light. A cursory glance at news media coverage of this issue and a discussion with the leader of Not Dead Yet shows that the news media rarely focused on the disability perspective or

even included comments from activist organizations. An exploratory look at major newspaper coverage of the issue, which went before the Supreme Court in 1997, showed that concerns of disabled people were rarely discussed.

BLIND“Blind” means sever visual impairmentBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraBlind to ____ / turn a blind eye to ____ / blinded by ignorance/bigotry/etc. Refers to Blind people or people with visual impairments.

BOUND“Bound” means unable to leave a wheelchair or having hindered mobilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraBound to a wheelchair (wheelchair bound) Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities.

CONFINED“Confined” means unable to leave a wheelchair or having hindered mobilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraConfined to a wheelchair Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities.

CRETIN“Cretin” means having intellectual disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraCretin Refers to people with intellectual disabilities.

CRIPPLECripple is an ableist slur for people with mobility disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraCripple/Crippled (by ____) Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities.

DEAF-MUTEDeaf and/or mute indicate people with physical communication disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraDeaf-Mute Refers to Deaf people or people with hearing impairments. Deaf to ____ / turn a deaf ear to ____ / etc. Refers to Deaf people or people with hearing impairments.

FEEBLE MINDED“Feeble minded” means having a form of mental disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraFeeble-Minded Refers to people with mental, psychiatric, intellectual, or developmental disabilities.

HANDICAPHandicap refers to people with mobile disabilities or disabilities in generalBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraHandicap(ped) Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities. Handicapable Usually refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities, but can also mean any person with a disability.

INVALID“Invalid” refers to people with chronic health conditions or hindered mobilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraInvalid Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities or chronic health conditions.

LAME“Lame” refers to people with physical disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraLame Refers to people with physical or mobility disabilities.

MADHOUSE“Madhouse” is a derogatory term for mental care institutionsBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraMadhouse/Mad/Madman Refers to an institution housing people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

MANIAC“Maniac” refers to people with mental disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraManiac Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

DEFECTIVE“Defective” refers to disabled individualsBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraMental Defective Refers to people with mental, psychiatric, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities.

-TARD“<__>tard” is a derogatory term for mentally disabled peopleBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraRetard(ed)/[anything]-tard Refers to people with intellectual disabilities.

SPAZ“Spaz” refers to people having neurological disabilitiesBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraSpaz(zed) Refers to people with cerebral palsy or similar neurological disabilities.

CASE“Case” refers to an instance of a disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraMental/Mental Case Refers to people with mental or psychiatric disabilities.

SPECIAL NEEDS“Special needs” means having a form of disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraSpecial Needs Usually refers to people with learning, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, but can mean any person with a disability.

SUFFER“Suffer” is used to indicate disabilityBrown 14 (Lydia Brown is an activist, public speaker, and writer focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people. She is diagnosed with autism. autistichoya.com: “Ableist Words and Phrases To Avoid” updated October 11th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html)TheFedoraSuffers from ____ Can refer to any person with a disability.

GENERIC ABLEIST LANGUAGE BADAbleist language is derogatory and excludes disabled bodies from spacesKris 14 (Kris is a writer whose last name was not provided for confidentiality purposes. Kris has been professionally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder. Dear Author: “Being crazy: An insider’s view on ableist language.” Published October 28th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/being-crazy-an-insiders-view-on-ableist-language/) TheFedoraCrazy, batshit, nuts, psycho, deranged, mental, crack pot, insane . Those were just some of the words I told my therapist I had seen in reference to Hale’s behaviour. She asked me what was it about them that hurt me so much. My response to her was it felt like they were directed at me. That the words so often used in a derogatory way to describe mental illness felt like a punch to my gut every time I saw them. I have a mental illness. Actually I have been diagnosed with several types. My name is Kris and I have Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder. In the scheme of things my mental illness is a relatively new thing. Although I have suffered from depression off and on for many years, the events triggering my Bipolar Disorder and with it the myriad of others only occurred three years ago. It is still new to me. And it is something I struggle with daily. I particularly have difficulties with acceptance, not only acceptance from others, but also acceptance of myself. That I have to live with, to try and manage, my mental illness for the rest of my life is so big. It is like a constant weight on my shoulders. I feel the stigma greatly. It makes me incredibly sensitive whenever the topic of mental illness is raised. Crazy, batshit, nuts, psycho, deranged, mental, crack pot, insane. These are not just words to me. Ableism is recognised as a form of discrimination towards physical, intellectual and mental disabilities. It reflects a point of view in which able-bodied people are those who are considered to function ‘normally’ in everyday society whereas those with disabilities are ‘abnormal’ and should strive to become more normalised, more like their able-bodied peers. As a result, having a disability becomes a bad thing. Disabilities become marginalised. Ableist language is words and terms, usually descriptors and fillers, which target individuals with disabilities. Words like ‘spaz’ or ‘retarded’ can be used intentionally or casually in day-to-day speech, but because of their invested meaning/s are problematic and can insult and cause harm to those who have disabilities. Crazy, batshit, nuts, psycho, deranged, mental, crack pot, insane. These are not just words to me. For me, such terms increase the stigma of mental illness. For me, such terms have triggered some of my own mental health problems to the point I am seriously considering whether I want to remain part of the book community. A community that, despite being one of my few connections to the outside world, has been so full of hate speech and lack of acceptance towards mental illness during the past week it has been devastating to me. I have had to wonder if it is doing me more harm than good. Something I am still thinking about. Am I advocating censorship? Am I setting myself up as the language police? Am I being too PC? No, I am not. What I am suggesting, no, fuck it, what I am stating outright is that as a society we seem to have become so desensitised to the meaning of certain words we forget words have power. They have the power to transform and they have the power to harm. As a community where words are loved and the stories they help tell are cause for so many emotions, I believe we are perfectly placed to talk about ableist language, to consider the terms we may intentionally or inadvertently use, to take a step back and ask ourselves in what other ways we can express ourselves to describe a situation or an action or an individual. Crazy, batshit, nuts, psycho, deranged, mental, crack pot, insane. None of us can know if Hale has any mental health issues. More importantly, and regardless if she does have an illness, it does NOT make her behaviour appropriate. Being triggered, does NOT justify her response. Whilst mental illness may give insight in to an individual’s thoughts and actions it certainly does NOT absolve responsibility. What Hale did was wrong. She was an arsehole. It is as simple as that. Crazy, batshit, nuts, psycho, deranged, mental, crack pot, insane. These are not just words to me. Be mindful. Words have power. Words hurt.

Ableist language perpetuates the shared societal belief that disabled individuals are inferior, affirming the practice of their exclusionCohen-Rottenberg (Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg has a master’s degree in History and Culture at Union Institute & University. Huffington Post: “Doing Social Justice: 10 Reasons to Give Up Ableist Language” Published August 10th, 2014. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-cohenrottenberg/doing-social-justice-thou_b_5476271.html) TheFedoraDisability metaphors abound in our culture, and they exist almost entirely as pejoratives. You see something wrong? Compare it to a disabled body or mind: Paralyzed. Lame. Crippled. Schizophrenic. Diseased. Sick. Want to launch an insult? The words are seemingly endless: Deaf. Dumb. Blind. Idiot. Moron. Imbecile. Crazy. Insane. Retard. Lunatic. Psycho. Spaz. I see these terms everywhere: in comment threads on major news stories, on social justice sites, in everyday speech. These words seem so "natural" to people that they go uncorrected a great deal of the time. I tend to remark on this kind of speech wherever I see it. In some very rare places, my critique is welcome. In most places, it is not. When a critique of language that makes reference to disability is not welcome, it is nearly inevitable that, as a disabled person, I am not welcome either. I might be welcome as an activist, but not as a disabled activist. I might be welcome as an ally, but not as a disabled ally. I might be welcome as a parent, but not as a disabled parent. That's a lot like being welcomed as an activist, and as an ally and as a parent, but not as a woman or as a Jew. Many people have questions about why ableist speech matters, so I'll be addressing those questions here. Please feel free to raise others. 1. Why are you harping so much on words, anyway? Don't we have more important things to worry about? I am always very curious about those who believe that words are "only" words -- as though they do not have tremendous power. Those of us who use words understand the world through them. We use words to construct frameworks with which we understand experience. Every time we speak or write, we are telling a story; every time we listen or read, we are hearing one. No one lives without entering into these stories about their fellow human beings. As Arthur Frank writes: Stories work with people, for people, and always stories work on people, affecting what people are able to see as real, as possible, and as worth doing or best avoided. What is it about stories -- what are their particularities -- that enables them to work as they do? More than mere curiosity is at stake in this question, because human life depends on the stories we tell: the sense of self that those stories impart, the relationships constructed around shared stories, and the sense of purpose that stories both propose and foreclose. (Frank 2010, 3) The stories that disability metaphors tell are deeply problematic, deeply destructive and deeply resonant of the kinds of violence and oppression that disabled people have faced over the course of many centuries . They perpetuate negative and disempowering views of disabled people, and these views wind their ways into all of the things that most people feel are more important. If a culture's language is full of pejorative metaphors about a group of people, that culture is not going to see those people as fully entitled to the same housing, employment, medical care, education, access and inclusion as people in a more favored group.

Mental disability isn’t the reason bad things happenKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraThe weather or your job cannot be “schizo” or “bi-polar.” Only people can be those things [ETA: reader Mel Health left a great comment about this: “one should not say ‘that person is bi-polar, or ‘that person is a schizophrenic’, it must be phrased ‘that person has schizophrenia’. The point is to avoid identifying someone only by their disorder (which sadly happens anyway).”] . Just don’t ever use these terms unless you’re discussing them in a mental illness context. That doesn’t mean you can speculate out of frustration, “I think Politician A has bi-polar disorder.”

First of all, it doesn’t matter if she is or not, because mental illness is not the reason people do or say horrible things .

Ableist language stigmatizes the disabledAaron 15 (Jessi Elana Aaron is an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Florida. The Washington Post: “‘Lame,’ ‘stand up’ and other words we use to insult the disabled without even knowing it” published May 13th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/13/lame-stand-up-and-other-words-we-use-to-insult-the-disabled-without-even-knowing-it/)TheFedoraNew meanings aren’t random At the same time, much media attention has been paid to the use of slurs such as retarded . Similarly, the stigma associated with psychiatric disabilities has left its mark on many words, rendering them insults, such as crazy and insane.

NON-LANGUAGE LINKS

EXCESSIVE IMPACTSNOTE:This is best if they read more impacts than one would expect. One or two impacts per advantage isn’t a very strong link compared to a dozen heg scenarios on one flow

Excessive impacts and a culture normalizing fear triggers anxiety and excludes those with anxiety disorders from the debate spaceCalm Clinic 15 (Calm Clinic is an informational blog designed to educate the public on anxiety and assist those with anxiety. Calm Clinic: “Common Anxiety Triggers for Anxiety and Panic” copyright 2009-2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/causes/triggers) TheFedoraHealth and News The media really has changed the culture of anxiety. They report often on young deaths, dangers, and lawsuits that can all create a feeling of discomfort and fear that may trigger an increase in anxiety levels. A great example was an article about the dangers of MRSA - a deadly infection that is immune to most medications - where doctors wrote the biggest danger of MRSA wasn't the disease itself, but rather public fear over the disease. Media can create fears and stress where they weren't before, and this may lead to persistent anxiety. Loss of Coping Anxiety may also be triggered by a loss of coping ability, often due to replacement coping. This is an incredibly common problem with those that abuse drugs or alcohol, but may affect those that party or do reckless behaviors in order to cure stress. These behaviors are coping replacements, and unfortunately natural stress coping is a "use it or lose it" type of ability. If you replace your coping ability with these types of negative behaviors, you risk losing you mental ability to cope with stress and anxiety may be the result. Anxious Thoughts Certain anxious thoughts may also trigger greater amounts of anxiety. Anxiety causes anxious thoughts in general, so often this affects those that have already been struggling with mild anxiety. But in some cases, if the thought was particularly distressing, it may trigger an incredible increase in anxiety that cascades out of control.

SURVEILLANCE REFORMReforms of surveillance fail to address its hidden continuing effect on disabled individuals. The surveillance state sees the disabled as different and therefore a threat, and manipulates violence against them. This affirmation of ableist surveillance excludes disabled bodies from the debate spaceSaltes 13 (Natasha Saltes, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Queen's University. Surveillance Studies Network: “’Abnormal’ Bodies on the Borders of Inclusion” published November, 2013. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/abnormal/abnormal)TheFedoraSurveillance Studies has made significant contributions to discussions on human rights by documenting practices of discrimination based on characteristics such as race (Poudrier 2003; Glover 2008, 2009; Browne 2012), gender (Monahan 2009; Koskela 2012), and class (Gilliom 2001; Maki 2011). Yet surveillance practices associated with the embodiment of impairment and the experience of disability have been largely ignored . This omission is perplexing given the emphasis that Surveillance Studies places on the normalizing technologies of power used to monitor, control and regulate behaviours and mobilities of certain bodies. The absence of a discussion on impairment and disability in Surveillance Studies is also curious given the prominence accorded to the monitoring and regulation of the body in relation to social norms in the work of Michel Foucault. While Foucault has examined the biopolitical arrangements through which health and welfare of the population is advanced, there is a dearth of literature that examines the connection between impairment, disability, surveillance and biopolitics. To date, the research agenda of leading disability scholars have explored the myriad ways people with impairments are subjected to social exclusion, inequality and oppression and how these practices are framed within biomedical perspectives of disability (see, for example, Oliver 1990a, 1990b; Rioux and Valentine 2006; Barnes and Mercer 2010; Oliver and Barnes 2012). Few have ventured toward an analysis of how the biomedical perspective of disability is used to rationalize biopolitics and to sustain a surveillance regime that excludes people with impairments. 1 This paper seeks to address this gap by introducing the concept of ‘disability surveillance’. Building from a widely accepted definition of surveillance proposed by Lyon (2007), I define disability surveillance as the practice of collecting, documenting, monitoring and classifying personal data that pertains to the embodied characteristics and attributes of impairment. In order to avoid conceptualizing disability surveillance in purely disempowering terms, my aim is to highlight the ways in which surveillant practices oscillate between biopolitical practices of social control that exclude people with impairments in order to prevent perceived economic ‘risk’ and practices of counting and classifying people with impairments in order to promote rights. I argue that this paradox stems from contradictory and inconsistent definitions of disability used by various sectors of the Canadian government. When disability surveillance is carried out in ways that pathologize and exclude people with impairments in order to limit access to resources and/or citizenship, disability tends to be defined in terms of a functional limitation and people with impairments are seen as those with non-normative bodies that pose a ‘risk’. Disability surveillance that operates on perceived notions of risk are carried out under biopolitical rationalizations that aim to promote the health and prosperity of the population through social sorting processes that involve identifying and categorizing ‘abnormality’ through the collection of medical data. In identifying the operation of biopolitics in Canadian immigration policy, I look specifically at s. 38(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, commonly referred to as the ‘excessive demand clause’, as an exclusionary mechanism of power that denies immigration applicants with certain health conditions and impairment on the presumption that they would imikempose undue costs on health and social services. I also look at the ways in which biometric technology at the border contributes to the experience of disability by assigning the identity of ‘abnormal’ to people with impairments who do not conform to the system’s ableist design. However, in order to improve

accessibility, remove disabling barriers and develop adequate programs, services, and accommodation it is necessary to measure and count the prevalence and impact of impairment. When conducted for this purpose, disability surveillance operates according to the principles and goals of the disability rights movement and is conducted according to a definition of disability that does not reduce disability to the body, but instead recognizes the ways in which social constructions and processes contribute to disability. This presents a paradox whereby the techniques of disability surveillance become a venue for both exclusion and empowerment. Disability surveillance reinforces ableist norms, but also provides the tools to change them. This paper problematizes normalization and definitions of disability grounded in medical discourse for its legitimization of the perception of abnormal that is used to rationalize exclusionary biopolitical agendas. I conclude with a theoretical argument that aims to resolve the paradox of preventing ‘risk’ and promoting rights by applying Ojakangas’ (2005) notion of an affirmative biopolitics of care.

PSYCHOANALYSISNOTE:This only applies well to the “politics of desire” and “embrace death drive” alts.The alt is ableist: rejection of goal setting takes out anxiety coping mechanismsCalm Clinic 15 (Calm Clinic is an informational blog designed to educate the public on anxiety and assist those with anxiety. Calm Clinic: “Common Anxiety Triggers for Anxiety and Panic” copyright 2009-2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/causes/triggers) TheFedoraLack of Goal Setting The mind and body often need certain emotions to stay sane. Accomplishment and the idea that you're working towards something are actually a valuable tool for keeping your anxiety at bay . If you're not goal setting and letting each day pass without a plan, you may find that you stop thinking about the future, and that can put you too much in the present.

SATIRESatire employs heavy use of sarcasm and ironyWatson 11 (CATE WATSON: School of Education, University of Stirling, United Kingdom. SAGE Journals: “Notes on the Variety and Uses of Satire, Sarcasm and Irony in Social Research, with Some Observations on Vices and Follies in the Academy.” Published 2011. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://pae.sagepub.com/content/3/2/139.full.pdf+html)TheFedora

Satire , whether considered as genre or mode of writing (that is, as ‘a tone and an attitude’

[Real, 2005, p. 512]), frequently makes use of other rhetorical devices, such as sarcasm (which is distinguished by its bitter and caustic nature [Gibbs, 2007]) and, especially, irony. While irony is a difficult term to define, with many variants – dramatic, verbal, situational, Socratic, etc. – the most common definition, according to Colebrook (2004, p. 1),

is ‘ saying something contrary to what is meant’ . Though she regards this as simplistic almost to the point of uselessness, it immediately throws up problems for the social scientist who is, generally speaking, discouraged from doing this sort of thing. However, while satire (and sarcasm) may be considered narrative forms, means for and of representation, irony, as a rhetorical trope which exerts its effects through juxtaposition and the creation of incongruity, constitutes a potential analytical tool in social research, overturning expectations and operating within a ‘logic of discovery’. Irony is ‘a metaphor of opposites , a seeing of something from the viewpoint of its antithesis’ (Brown, 1989, p. 174), and it is the ability to do this which constitutes the art of social science. Indeed, Brown contends that ‘the prime instrument of sociological knowledge is an eye for paradox, contradiction and reversals that are latent beneath the more obvious manifest content of action’ (p. 178); and he goes on, ‘[T]he sociologist must “estrange” taken-for-granted reality so that it appears in a new and previously unsuspected light; he must be the man who shouts “Theatre!” in the middle of a crowded fire’ (p. 183).

Focus on sarcasm and irony is ableist, excluding those unable to detect it: this removes from the debate space those who are sociopathic, or who have Asperger syndrome, or other social disabilities.Chin 14 (Richard Chin is a Twin Cities newspaper reporter. He was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. Smithsonian Magazine: “The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right” published November 14th, 2014. Accessed July 21st, 2015. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-of-sarcasm-yeah-right-25038/?all)TheFedoraActually, scientists are finding that the ability to detect sarcasm really is useful. For the past 20 years, researchers from linguists to psychologists to neurologists have been studying our ability to perceive snarky remarks and gaining new insights into how the mind works. Studies have shown that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem solving, for instance. Children understand and use sarcasm by the time they get to kindergarten. An inability to understand sarcasm may be an early warning sign of brain disease. Sarcasm detection is an essential skill if one is going to function in a modern society dripping with irony. “Our culture in particular is permeated with sarcasm,” says Katherine Rankin, a neuropsychologist at the University of

California at San Francisco. “People who don’t understand sarcasm are immediately noticed. They’re not getting it. They’re not socially adept .” Sarcasm so saturates 21st-century America that according to one study of a database of telephone conversations, 23 percent of the time that the phrase “yeah, right” was used, it was uttered sarcastically. Entire phrases have almost lost their literal meanings because they are so frequently said with a sneer. “Big deal,” for example.

When’s the last time someone said that to you and meant it sincerely? “My heart bleeds for you” almost always equals “Tell it to someone who cares,” and “Aren’t you special” means you aren’t. “It’s practically the primary language” in modern society, says John Haiman, a linguist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the author of Talk is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation and the Evolution of Language. Sarcasm seems to exercise the brain more than sincere statements do. Scientists who have monitored the electrical activity of the brains of test subjects exposed to sarcastic statements have found that brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm. That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another study. College students in Israel listened to complaints to a cellphone company’s customer service line. The students were better able to solve problems creatively when the complaints were sarcastic as opposed to just plain angry. Sarcasm “appears to stimulate complex thinking and to attenuate the otherwise negative effects of anger,” according to the study authors. The mental gymnastics needed to perceive sarcasm includes developing a “theory of mind” to see beyond the literal meaning of the words and understand that the speaker may be thinking of something entirely different . A theory of mind allows you to realize that when your brother says “nice job” when you spill the milk, he means just the opposite, the jerk. Sarcastic statements are sort of a true lie. You’re saying something you don’t literally mean, and the communication works as intended only if your listener gets that you’re insincere. Sarcasm has a two-faced quality: it’s both funny and mean. This dual nature has led to contradictory theories on why we use it.

Multiple disabilities limit capacity to accurately interpret sarcasmWilliams ‘8 (Diane L. Williams: a Department of Speech Language Pathology, Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University; Gerald Goldstein: VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Nicole Kojkowski: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Nancy J. Minshewd, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Res Autism Spectr Disord: “Do individuals with high functioning autism have the IQ profile associated with nonverbal learning disability? “Published June, 2008. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4148695/) TheFedora

Individuals with high functioning autism (HFA), Asperger syndrome (ASP), and nonverbal learning disability (NLD) are all described as having difficulties in making sense of and navigating the social environment, resulting in interpersonal awkwardness (Frith, 2003 and Rourke, 1989; Volkmar & Klin, 2000). In addition to problems with social functioning, all three disorders are characterized by right hemisphere language impairments such as difficulty understanding figurative language, sarcasm, and humor as well as abnormalities in prosody, facial expression, gaze, gesture, and body language (Ellis, Ellis, Fraser, & Deb, 1994; Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1999; Ozonoff & Miller, 1996; Rourke & Tsatsanis, 2000; Sabbagh, 1999). The overlaps in the behavioral presentation of these three disorders create a challenge for diagnosticians.

FEM KFeminist movements repeatedly fail to address ableismWhitestone 15 (Sara Whitestone is a writer, photographer, and teacher at John Jay college, NYC. Everyday Feminism: “How Mainstream Feminism Continues to Perpetuate Ableism (And How We Can Change That)” published January 29th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/01/how-feminism-perpetuates-ableism/)TheFedoraDisabilities make up the largest “minority” group that includes the most diversity, and anyone can experience or acquire a disability at any point in their life. And yet even in feminist and social justice spaces, ableism persists. We continue to use ableist metaphors and language in these spaces. Often, we use these phrases as ways to describe our thoughts, but ultimately we continue to equate disability as a Bad Thing and use ableist language for its negative connotation. And we wonder why disabled people often feel that mainstream feminism leaves both disabled people and disability issues out of the conversation entirely. When disabled people are continually overlooked as a marginalized identity, it makes the consequences of our oppression even worse. So until disabilities are no longer seen as an inherently Bad Thing (which is a whole other conversation), we need to be very intentional about not using ableist language – especially when talking about social justice. As feminists, our conversations have to change. Common Ableist Phrases Found Within Feminist Discourse (And What to Say Instead) Despite knowing that ableist language matters, much of the phrasing used in feminist discourse is, believe it or not, ableist. Here are a few examples! 1. ‘They’re Blind to Their Privilege’ Not everyone is able to recognize their privilege. And when people can’t seem to recognize it, people often say they’re “blind” to it. In this phrase, “blind” is equated with “ignorant.” That’s not what being blind means. Blindness is a physical condition of the eyes — it’s not a way to describe someone who lacks critical understanding. And to continue referring to blindness in this context only furthers the stigma and misconceptions that surround the condition and the people with it. Instead, say “They don’t recognize their privilege.” 2. ‘Falls on Deaf Ears’ This phrase is an expression for people who refuse to try to understand something we might be explaining. It refers to people who willingly choose to ignore our perspective. This associates deafness with unwillingness or inability to understand. Those who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing don’t need to hear to understand! Instead, say “They refuse to understand” or “They didn’t realize.” 3. ‘Racists (Homophobes, Misogynists, Etc.) Are Emotionally Crippled’ “Crippled” is commonly used to describe the “brokenness” of something. Unfortunately, “crippled” has also been used as a hurtful slur against disabled people — it describes them as broken. And disabled people are not broken. Some disability activists are choosing to reclaim the words “crip” and “gimp.” But non-disabled feminists cannot reclaim a slur that has not been used against them. Instead, say “Racists are assholes” or “Racists are unable to connect with their humanity and emotions.” 4. ‘The World Has Gone Autistic’ This phrase is trying to describe how detached or even selfish our society can be — which only serves to validate the outrageous stigma against autistic people. Due in part to awful organizations like Autism Speaks, us allistic individuals might believe that autism causes an inability to communicate, connect, and empathize – but that’s just not true. Autism, while it varies in complexity, is a diversion from neurotypicality. People on the spectrum are still human, despite what others might be saying. Instead, say “The world has become disconnected”. 5. Other Subtle Ableist Phrasing While slurs are easier to recognize in our phrases, we also use language that is ableist without the negative connotation. Even words that don’t seem hurtful are used specifically to describe and set apart certain disabilities — for example, “special” is still used to other people with intellectual disabilities. We also tend to erase disabled identities through our language. Phrases like “Can’t you see what I mean ,” “Do you hear what I’m saying,” or even “standing in solidarity” are still exclusive. These phrases assume that everyone can actually see, hear, or stand. This constructs a norm that a lot of us can’t perform in. How We Dehumanize Disabled People One of the most popular ways

that temporarily non-disabled allies try to show their support of disabled people is through what’s known as “people first language.” They promise not to “put the disability before the person” and therefore choose to say “people with disabilities” instead of “disabled people.” And while the intent is good, the “people first language” movement relies on the fact that disabled people are consistently not seen as human. While it’s up to the individual to decide whether or not they identify with their disability, disabled people often face the reality that non-disabled people only identify them as their disability. For example, to some people, I’m simply known as “the wheelchair girl.” The people first language movement and statements like “I don’t see you as disabled” are meant to be positive, but they just reinforce the mainstream belief that disability is dehumanizing. And when people with disabilities are not recognized as individual human beings, we are made into props. We are seen as “less than” and therefore deserving of only pity or charity. On the other hand, if we are not being pitied, then we are being praised. We are seen as extraordinary and inspirational, simply because we’ve managed to live while disabled. The late disability rights activist and comedian Stella Young calls this common phenomenon inspiration porn. Inspiration porn is the name given to any propaganda meant to “inspire” temporarily non-disabled people with examples of individuals with disabilities. Inspiration porn is for the viewer’s pleasure and education. Inspiration porn reminds temporarily non-disabled people that their lives “can’t be that bad.” As if living with a disability is the worst thing that can happen to a person. This puts an expectation on people with disabilities to serve as educational props for temporarily non-disabled people. It dehumanizes any person with a disability, as if our only purpose is to validate others. Entering feminist or social justice spaces as the only — or even the first — disabled person is common for me and many other disabled activists. And this common dehumanizing rhetoric isn’t exactly welcoming. All it does is make it easy to tokenize or ignore people with disabilities. Intersectionality Must Include Disability If we really want equity for all, we have to be intersectional and understand how our own biases and our own privileges — especially when unchecked and ignored — will stop us from achieving our ultimate goal as feminists. For example, reproductive rights are a concern for most feminists. But disabled people continue to face additional challenges that go ignored – like inaccessible clinics and higher risks and costs of abortions. When we advocate for reproductive rights, but ignore how that struggle intersects with disability, we fail to achieve our goal as intersectional feminists. And we can’t continue to ignore disability rights when the results of the continued injustices are devastating. People with disabilities experience higher rates of hate-crimes, violence, and sexual assaults. Not only do we have to consider disability rights in our feminist movements, we also need to recognize the intersection of race, sexuality, class, and so on for those who are also disabled. For example, as a white woman, I learned to appreciate mainstream feminism for working to close the wage gap so that I can get paid the same amount as my male counterparts. However, what mainstream feminism doesn’t include is the fact that women of color continue to make even less than me. Additionally, the substantial pay gap for disabled employees or the fact that disabled people are half as likely to be employed goes completely unaddressed. People of color experience higher rates of disability. Sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression are often completely disregarded for disabled folks, as other people can’t often “see past the disability.” People with mental health diagnoses or disabilities are ten times more likely to be incarcerated than treated in a hospital. Feminism can’t allow these intersectional issues to be after-thoughts or sidebars along the mainstream’s dialogue. Accessibility or Bust One way to ensure that we aren’t ignoring disability rights is to invite disability activists in the conversation and make sure we’re providing accessibility while doing so. There are many different types of disabilities. Even if we have the same disability, it doesn’t mean that we use the same accommodations. We can start making our spaces more inclusive and accessible by simply asking what accommodations we need to provide by those who are participating. However, we can’t wait for someone with a disability to show up to make these changes. Some things we can start to do as allies without being asked or told, like ensuring a universally designed accessible space.

IMPACTS

DEBATE SPACE EXCLUSIONThe impact is the silencing of disabled voices and violence against disabled personsZelinger 7/7 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Forms of Ableism We Need to Retire Immediately” published July 7th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/121653/6-forms-of-ableism-we-need-to-retire-immediately)TheFedora6. Assuming disability is always visible Source: Getty Though their experiences are undoubtedly distinct from individuals with physical disabilities, people with non-apparent disabilities certainly face ableism as well. There is pervasive stigma surrounding mental illness, for example, and it can and often does lead to inequitable treatment, such as forced institutionalization and medication and a lack of agency in treating one's mental health, Cannington told Mic. But beyond being denied the autonomy of making personal choices, this form of ableism may even cause individuals physical harm — especially when compounded with race and class. "People with psychiatric disabilities are disproportionately victims of police brutality because of ableism," Cannington said. "It's a huge form of ableism not often named as ableism." And mental illness is hardly the only non-apparent disability. Individuals who experience learning disabilities, developmental intellectual disabilities and even chronic illness may identify as disabled, for example, but because they are not predominately recognized as such may be denied the help and resources they need. "As human beings we need to check our privileges in regards to our abilities," Cannington concluded. "In order to harness the power and diversity and innovation of our society, we have to realize that our minds and bodies experience the world in very different ways. If we are able to create access and be more intentional about how we create access, then we are doing everyone good."

Ableism in the debate space excludes those with disabilities from participation. Only challenging ableist practices solves.Zelinger 7/7 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Forms of Ableism We Need to Retire Immediately” published July 7th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/121653/6-forms-of-ableism-we-need-to-retire-immediately)TheFedora

Nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States has a disability, according to a 2012 Census Bureau report. Yet many forms of discrimination against the disability community not only persist, but are actually largely normalized and even integrated into our culture's very understanding (or, more accurately, disregard) of disabled people's experiences. Ableism refers to "discrimination in favor of able-bodied people," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. But the reality of ableism extends beyond literal discriminatory acts (intentional or not) to the way our culture views disabled people as a concept. Ableism is also the belief that people with disabilities "need to be fixed or cannot function as full members of society" and that having a disability is "a defect rather than a dimension of difference," according to the authors of one 2008 Journal of Counseling & Development article on the topic, as reported by Feminists with Disabilities. This interpretation of difference as defect is the true root of ableist acts that cause far too many to feel marginalized, discriminated against and ultimately devalued in this society. Here are just six forms of this behavior that, though largely normalized, need to be retired immediately. 1. Failing to provide accessibility beyond wheelchair ramps Source: Getty Perhaps the most obvious form of discrimination

people with disabilities face is the inability to access places and services open to their able-bodied counterparts — even with laws in place to prevent such inequality. As Tumblr user The (Chronically) Illest noted, while most people think "just [putting] wheelchair ramps everywhere" is sufficient, true accessibility accommodates all types of disabilities — not just physical disabilities that specifically bind people to wheelchairs. Accommodations can also include "braille, seeing-eye dogs/assistant dogs, ergonomic workspaces, easy to grip tools, closed captions ... class note-takers, recording devices for lectures" and other services and alterations. Though accessibility is certainly a matter of convenience and equity, a lack of accessible resources can impact the very wellbeing of people with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities have reported not being able to receive health care because their providers' facilities weren't accessible, and one study found that women with disabilities particularly face increased difficulty accessing reproductive health care, just to name two examples. 2. Using ableist language Source: Getty Ableism has become undeniably naturalized in the English language. Many people not only use words like "crazy," "insane" or "retarded" without a second thought, but many adamantly defend their use of these terms, decrying anybody who questions their right to do so as too "politically correct" or "sensitive." But this personal defense fails to recognize that ableist language is not about the words themselves so much as what their usage suggests the speaker feels about the individuals they represent. "When a critique of language that makes reference to disability is not welcome, it is nearly inevitable that, as a disabled person, I am not welcome either," Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg wrote in a 2013 Disability and Representation article. But beyond individual feelings, ableist language can contribute to a foundation of more systemic oppression of people with disabilities as a group. "If a culture's language is full of pejorative metaphors about a group of people," Cohen-Rottenberg continued, that culture is more likely to view those individuals as less entitled to rights like "housing, employment, medical care, education, access, and inclusion as people in a more favored group." 3. Able-bodied people failing to check their privilege Source: Getty It may not seem like a big deal in the moment, but able-bodied individuals fail to recognize the privilege of having access to every and any space accessible. As Erin Tatum points out at Everyday Feminism, plenty of people may not directly discriminate against people with disabilities but effectively do so by using resources allocated for them. For example, many able-bodied people use handicapped bathroom stalls or take up space in crowded elevators, rather than taking the stairs and leave room for people with disabilities who don't have other options, without a second thought. While these actions may not be the product of ill will, they are evidence of the way able-bodied privilege manifests in our society. There's a general cultural notion that "disability is something inherently negative," Allie Cannington, a board member of the American Association of People with Disabilities, told Mic. "There's a level of silencing that happens , and erasing of the disabled experience as an important experience because able-bodied experiences are the privileged experiences in our society."

Perpetuating ableist stigmas excludes disabled bodiesStevens 7/24 (Danielle Stevens is co-founder and editor-in-chief of This Bridge Called Our Health, an online healing space for women and femmes of color. For Harriet: “We Must Change the Ableist Language Surrounding Sandra Bland's Death” published July 24th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.forharriet.com/2015/07/we-must-change-ableist-language.html#axzz3gw69D8jc)TheFedoraThe impact of stigma I’ve written before about this issue but just a few “highlights” for you to consider: Disabled people are worse off than their non-disabled peers in terms of finding employment and housing. Just a couple of examples: one study found that in 2010 in the U.S., disabled people were half as likely to have a job as their counterparts without disabilities and in 2009, the number of young autistic adults who had a job was nearly half that of their peers with other disabilities. Ontarians with communication disabilities aren’t even properly covered by legislation mandating basic rights like accessibility. I’ve quoted this before but it’s worth quoting again. Data proves that: Stigma leads others to avoid living, socializing, or working with, renting to, or employing people with mental disorders – especially severe disorders, such as schizophrenia. It leads to low self-esteem, isolation, and

hopelessness. It deters the public from seeking and wanting to pay for care. Responding to stigma, people with mental health problems internalize public attitudes and become so embarrassed or ashamed that they often conceal symptoms and fail to seek treatment

There is some anti-ableism in the squo, but not enough. Without further movements society will be inherently exclusionaryRobinson 94 (Mary Robinson: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Disability Awareness in Action: “Are Disabled People Included?: An Exposure Document on the Violation of Disabled People's Human Rights and the Solutions Recommended Within the UN Standard Rules” published in 1994. Accessed July 24th, 2015.)TheFedoraHuman Rights and Disabled Persons The United Nations General Assembly, in 1981, adopted as the theme of the Year of Disabled Persons the slogan "Full Participation and Equality"; this meant recognition at the highest possible political level of the right to full participation of disabled people in the societies to which they belong. This has since become widely accepted as the overall goal of all development efforts in the disability field. During the UN Decade of Disabled Persons, 1983-1992, when the policies and programmes outlined in the World Programme of Action were to be implemented, some significant developments were achieved but there was too little progress . So the international disability community requested that the United Nations should assume a strong leadership role and find more concrete guidelines for development. As a result the Standard Rules were elaborated and unanimously adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/96 of 20 December 1993. UN Special Rapporteur Lindqvist stated that: "The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper , but not in reality . In all our countries, in all types of living conditions, the consequences of disability interfere in the lives of disabled persons to a degree which is not at all acceptable .... When a person is excluded from employment because he is disabled, he is being discriminated against as a human being. If a general education system is developed .... and disabled children are excluded, their rights are being violated". Even though it is difficult to have precise figures, it is estimated that more than 10 per cent of the world's total population have some type of disabling physical or mental impairment. This translates into the fact that approximately 25 per cent of the entire population are directly affected by disability. These figures are testimony to the enormous size of the problem and highlight the impact of disability on every society. Quantification alone is not a sufficient basis for evaluating the actual gravity of the problem; disabled persons frequently live in deplorable conditions , owing to the presence of physical and social barriers which prevent their integration and full participation in the community. Millions of children and adults worldwide are segregated and deprived of their rights and are, in effect, living on the margins. This is unacceptable. This year of commemoration by the international community of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, provides an opportunity to examine what has been achieved and to reflect what needs to be accomplished in the future. The motto of the anniversary 'All Human Rights for All' expresses what we must commit ourselves to securing in the years ahead. The provisions of the Declaration call for the respect of the rights of all human beings - recognition of the dignity of all humans, with or without disabilities. We must all be aware that no society can enjoy full development without proper consideration of all members and that there is no acceptable future for a society where individuals are excluded and deprived of their rights and dignity.

EDUCATIONContinued ableist assumptions in the academic space destroys educationHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraNegative cultural attitudes toward disability can undermine opportunities for all students to participate fully in school and society. When Ricky was born deaf, his parents were determined to raise him to function in the “normal” world. Ricky learned to read lips and was not taught American Sign Language. He felt comfortable within the secure world of his family, but when he entered his neighborhood school, he grew less confident as he struggled to understand what his classmates seemed to grasp so easily. Susan, a child with dyslexia, entered kindergarten with curiosity about the world around her, a lively imagination, and a love of picture books. Although her school provided her with individual tutoring and other special education services, it also expected her to read grade-level texts at the same speed as her nondisabled peers. Susan fell further and further behind. By 6th grade, she hated school and avoided reading. These two examples illustrate how society's pervasive negative attitude about disability—which I term ableism—often makes the world unwelcoming and inaccessible for people with disabilities. An ableist perspective asserts that it is preferable for a child to read print rather than Braille, walk rather than use a wheelchair, spell independently rather than use a spell-checker, read written text rather than listen to a book on tape, and hang out with nondisabled kids rather than with other disabled kids. Certainly, given a human-made world designed with the nondisabled in mind, children with disabilities gain an advantage if they can perform like their nondisabled peers. A physically disabled child who receives the help he or she needs to walk can move more easily in a barrier-filled environment. A child with a mild hearing loss who has been given the amplification and speech therapy he or she needs may function well in a regular classroom. But ableist assumptions become dysfunctional when the education and development services provided to disabled children focus on their disability to the exclusion of all else. From an early age, many people with disabilities encounter the view that disability is negative and tragic and that “overcoming” disability is the only valued result (Ferguson & Asch, 1989; Rousso, 1984). In education, considerable evidence shows that unquestioned ableist assumptions are harming disabled students and contributing to unequal outcomes (see Allington &

McGill-Franzen, 1989; Lyon et al., 2001). School time devoted to activities that focus on changing disability may take away from the time needed to learn academic material . In addition, academic deficits may be exacerbated by the ingrained prejudice against performing activities in “different” ways that might be more efficient for disabled people—such as reading Braille, using sign language, or using text-to-speech software to read. The Purpose of Special Education What should the purpose of special education be? In struggling with this issue, we can find guidance in the rich and varied narratives of people with disabilities and their families. Noteworthy among these narratives is the work of Adrienne Asch, a professor of bioethics at Yeshiva University in New York who is blind. In her analysis of stories that adults with disabilities told about their childhood experiences (Ferguson & Asch, 1989), Asch identified common themes in their parents' and educators' responses to their disability. Some of the adults responded with excessive concern and sheltering. Others conveyed to children, through silence or denial, that nothing was “wrong.” For example, one young woman with significant vision loss related that she was given no alternative but to use her limited vision even though this restriction caused her significant academic problems. Another common reaction was to make ill-conceived attempts to fix the disability. For example, Harilyn Rousso, an accomplished psychotherapist with cerebral palsy, recounts, My mother was quite concerned with the awkwardness of my walk. Not only did it periodically cause me to fall but it made me stand out, appear conspicuously different—which she feared would subject me to endless teasing and rejection. To some extent it did. She made numerous attempts over the years of my childhood to have me go to physical therapy and to practice walking “normally” at home. I vehemently refused her efforts. She could not understand why I would not walk straight. (1984, p. 9) In recalling her own upbringing and education, Asch describes a more positive response to disability: I give my parents high

marks. They did not deny that I was blind, and did not ask me to pretend that everything about my life was fine. They rarely sheltered. They worked to help me behave and look the way others did without giving me a sense that to be blind—“different”—was shameful. They fought for me to ensure that I lived as full and rich a life as I could. For them, and consequently for me, my blindness was a fact, not a tragedy. It affected them but did not dominate their lives. Nor did it dominate mine. (Ferguson & Asch, 1989, p. 118) Asch's narrative and others (Biklen, 1992) suggest that we can best frame the purpose of special education as minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing the opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in schooling and the community. This framework assumes that most students with disabilities will be integrated into general education and educated within their natural community. It is consistent with the 1997 and 2004 reauthorizations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires that individualized education program (IEP) teams address how the student will gain access to the curriculum and how the school will meet the unique needs that arise out of the student's disability. Finally, this framework embraces the diverse needs of students with various disabilities as well as the individual diversity found among students within each disability group. Falling Short of the Goal Minimizing the impact of disability does not mean making misguided attempts to “cure” disability but rather giving students the supports, skills, and opportunities needed to live as full a life as possible with their disability. Maximizing access requires that school practices recognize the right of students with disabilities to participate fully in the school community—not only in academic programs, but also in sports teams, choruses, clubs, and field trips. A look at common problems encountered by students with low-incidence disabilities, specific learning disabilities, and emotional disturbances illustrates that schools still have a long way to go in fulfilling the purpose of special education. Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities In Adrienne Asch's case, minimizing the impact of her blindness meant learning Braille, developing orientation and mobility skills, and having appropriate accommodations available that gave her access to education. Asch also points out that because of New Jersey's enlightened policies at the time, she could live at home and attend her local school, so she and her family were not required to disrupt their lives to receive the specialized services she needed. Unfortunately, many students today with low-incidence disabilities like blindness and deafness are not afforded the opportunities that Asch had in the early 1950s. Parents sometimes face the choice of sending their children to a local school that is ill equipped to meet their needs or to a residential school with specialized services, thus disrupting normal family life. Parents should not be forced to make this Hobson's choice. Services can be brought to blind and deaf students in typical community settings, and most students can thrive in that environment (Wagner, Black-orby, Cameto, & Newman, 1993; Wagner & Cameto, 2004). It is up to policymakers to ensure that such services are available. Students with Specific Learning Disabilities Because students identified as having learning disabilities are such a large and growing portion of the school population, we might expect that these students would be less likely to be subjected to ableist practices. The available evidence, however, contradicts this assumption. Many students with dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities receive inappropriate instruction that exacerbates their disabilities. For example, instead of making taped books available to these students, many schools require those taught in regular classrooms to handle grade-level or higher text. Other schools do not allow students to use computers when taking exams, thus greatly diminishing some students' ability to produce acceptable written work. The late disabilities advocate Ed Roberts had polio as a child, which left him dependent on an iron lung. He attended school from home in the 1960s with the assistance of a telephone link. When it was time for graduation, however, the school board planned to deny him a diploma because he had failed to meet the physical education requirement. His parents protested, and Ed eventually graduated (Shapiro, 1994). We can hardly imagine this scenario happening today, given disability law and improved societal attitudes. Yet similar ableist assumptions are at work when schools routinely require students with learning disabilities to read print at grade level to gain access to the curriculum or to meet proficiency levels on high-stakes assessments. Assuming that there is only one “right” way to learn—or to walk, talk, paint, read, and write—is the root of fundamental inequities. Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Students Perhaps no group suffers from negative attitudes more than students who have been identified as having serious emotional disturbance (SED)—and no other subpopulation experiences poorer outcomes. Students with SED drop out of school at more than

double the rate of nondisabled students. Only 15 percent pursue higher education, and approximately 50 percent are taught in segregated settings (U.S. Department of Education, 2003; Wagner & Cameto, 2004). For large numbers of students with serious emotional disturbance, their IEPs are more likely to include inappropriate responses to control the most common symptom of their disability—acting-out behavior—than to provide the accommodations and support the students need to be successful in education. Only 50 percent of students with SED receive mental health services, only 30 percent receive social work services, and only 50 percent have behavior management appropriately addressed in their IEPs (Wagner & Cameto, 2004). What do these students typically receive through special education? They are commonly placed in a special classroom or school with other students with similar disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 2003)—often with an uncertified teacher. Placing such students in separate classes without specific behavioral supports, counseling, or an expert teacher is unlikely to work . Substantial evidence, indicates, however, that providing these students with appropriate supports and mental health services can significantly reduce disruptive behavior and improve their learning (Sugai, Sprague, Horner, & Walker, 2000). Such supports are most effective when provided within the context of effective schoolwide discipline approaches, such as the U.S. Department of Education's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program (www.pbis.org).

Schoolwide approaches also produce safer and better-run schools for all students. Guidelines for Special Education Decision Making The goal of minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing opportunities to participate suggests several guidelines for serving students with disabilities.

Characterizing disabled bodies as intellectually inferior shapes educational spaces that disregard vast amounts of participantsOmum 14 (Omum22 is the pen name of a writer for the organization Small But Kinda Mighty, a website devoted to information related to ableism and ableist concepts. Small But Kinda Mighty: “Five things to consider before using ableist language” Published August 19th, 2014. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://smallbutkindamighty.com/2014/08/19/five-things-consider-using-ableist-language/)TheFedoraOur modern fetishization of “intellectual superiority” One person who engaged with me on twitter took the view that in describing Rob Ford as an “idiot” and as “stupid”, he was merely being factually descriptive. I see this an awful lot and in my view it’s one of the most insidious forms of ableism. We see it everywhere, this idea that people who are “smart” are somehow better, more superior than others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of education and completely deplore ignorance. I’m talking about how certain people assume that others who do not share their views are therefore intellectually inferior. The Fords play on this to rally people to their cause – when they talk about “downtown elites” and “lefties” the dog-whistle they are blowing is to tell their supporters, “hey, these people think they are better and smarter than you”. It builds resentment and it’s something that we inflame and reinforce every time we accuse the Fords and their supporters of stupidity. Many parents of autistic people and even autistic people themselves, also display ableism in this regard when they, consciously or otherwise, emphasize that they or their children are “high functioning”, have a diagnosis of Asperger’s not autism, are not “severely” autistic and so on. I see it in books, statements and memes that talk about the genius of autism and that retroactively diagnose people like Newton and Einstein as autistic. In fact, all autistic people have value and they don’t need to be a savant to demonstrate that. Individuals with an intellectual or cognitive disability, whether due to autism, Fragile X, Down Syndrome or something else are all inherently valuable and all have both gifts to offer and rights that need to be respected.

NEOLIBAbleism supports neoliberal institutions that use disabled individuals as huge sources of incomeZelinger 7/15 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Things You Must Know About The Disabilities We Can't See” published July 15th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/122187/5-things-you-must-know-about-the-disabilities-we-can-t-see)TheFedora5. Dealing with these disabilities can be enormously expensive. Source: Wikimedia In addition to social struggles, invisible disabilities are costly to deal with. While the Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to provide coverage to those with pre-existing health conditions, people with disabilities still have to shoulder costs associated with their conditions. For example, Sanders was prescribed medication that personally cost her $500 a bottle, and only lasted 12 days. Even with two forms of medical insurance, she paid about $5,000 of a $200,000 surgery — which was just one of three procedures she needed. In addition to the straight financial costs the experience cost Sanders time and energy — she spent countless hours on the phone fighting and negotiating various medical bills, she told Mic, and perhaps detrimentally continued to work throughout her recovery because she couldn't afford not to.

ALT IS PRE-REQUISITE Evaluating ableism comes first: it stems from rhetoric and is a learned behavior. Only the new rhetoric of the alt solvesCherney 11 (Dr. James L. Cherney graduated in 1990 from Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. Disability Studies Quarterly, “The Rhetoric of Ableism.” Published in 2011. Accessed July 27th, 2015. http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/1665/1606) TheFedoraAs Disability Studies continues its exploration of disability in society, scholars have paid growing attention to the rhetoric of disability. This scholarship approaches the subject from different angles, but it generally works with similar premises including the position that rhetoric can shape the way disability is understood and (in)forms its political implications. These studies range from considering how rhetoric crafts disability to examining how ideas of disability impact theories of rhetoric. Brenda Jo Brueggemann explores how rhetoric constructs the disability of deafness, revealing how Hearing culture oppresses Deaf culture.1 Jay Dolmage shows how contemporary histories have "imported [exclusion] into the classical world" and oversimplified the complex views of disability that informed that era's influential theories of rhetoric.2 James C. Wilson and Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson's Embodied Rhetorics collects several works covering the terrain between these studies.3 I seek to build upon these authors' valuable work by continuing to examine rhetoric but turning to a related yet different focus: I analyze ableism instead of disability. While disability and ableism clearly relate, I consider attending to the latter to be similar to studying racism instead of race. Neither project makes sense without the other, and arguably studying disability has greater potential for promoting awareness and emancipatory politics, but studying ableism promises unique results such as identifying the identical mechanisms that propagate different types of discrimination.

In this essay I analyze ableism as a rhetorical problem for three reasons. First, ableist culture sustains and perpetuates itself via rhetoric; the ways of interpreting disability and assumptions about bodies that produce ableism are learned . The previous generation teaches it to the next and cultures spread it to each other through modes of intercultural exchange. Adopting a rhetorical perspective to the problem of ableism thus exposes the social systems that keep it alive. This informs my second reason for viewing ableism as rhetoric, as revealing how it thrives suggests ways of curtailing its growth and promoting its demise. Many of the strategies already adopted by disability rights activists to confront ableism explicitly or implicitly address it as rhetoric. Public demonstrations, countercultural performances, autobiography, transformative histories of disability and disabling practices, and critiques of ableist films and novels all apply rhetorical solutions to the problem. Identifying ableism as rhetoric and exploring its systems dynamic reveals how these corrective practices work. We can use such information to refine the successful techniques, reinvent those that fail, and realize new tactics. Third, I contend that any means of challenging ableism must eventually encounter its rhetorical power. As I explain below, ableism is that most insidious form of rhetoric that has become reified and so widely accepted as common sense that it denies its own rhetoricity—it "goes without saying." To fully address it we must name its presence, for cultural assumptions accepted uncritically adopt the mantle of "simple truth" and become extremely difficult to rebut. As the neologism "ableism" itself testifies, we need new words to reveal the places it resides and new language to describe how it feeds. Without doing so, ableist ways of thinking and interpreting will operate as the context for making sense of any acts challenging discrimination, which undermines their impact, reduces their symbolic potential, and can even transform them into superficial measures that give the appearance of change yet elide a recalcitrant ableist

system.

ABLEISM K ALTS

GENERICThe alternative is to recognize and challenge ableist assumptions in the educational space of debate by rejecting the affHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraThe U.S. education system has made major strides in improving education opportunities for students with disabilities. More of these students are finishing high school than ever, and record numbers are moving on to employment and higher education (Wagner & Cameto, 2004).

Much of this improvement has taken place because of the work of school leaders throughout the United States.

To continue and expand this progress , however, educators must recognize and challenge the ableist assumptions that still permeate the culture and guide much special education practice. Students with disabilities need carefully constructed, individual instructional programs that recognize the effects of their disability while creating opportunities for them to learn and fully participate in school and society.

PRIORITIZE INTEGRATIONThe alternative is to reject the affirmative for its ableist assumptions in order to endorse inclusion of disabled people in the debate spaceHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraKeep integration into the general education environment the priority. IDEA's requirement that all students be educated in the least restrictive environment has resulted in significant positive change for students with disabilities. Research has shown that including students with disabilities in the general education environment improves academic achievement (Wagner et al., 1993). Inclusion also plays a central role in the integration of disabled people into all aspects of society, both by giving students the education they need to compete and by demonstrating to nondisabled students that disability is a natural aspect of life. For most students with disabilities, integration into regular classes with appropriate accommodations and support should be the norm.

INVOLVE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIESThe alt is to strive to include people with disabilities in the debate space. This approach is key to integrating people with disabilities and accessing any education impactHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraInvolve students with disabilities in education decisions when

appropriate. Students themselves play a crucial role in achieving better results. By involving students in decisions about their own education, we can gain important insights about the way they learn best, encourage them to take responsibility for their own education, and teach them to advocate for themselves as they move into higher education and employment. A focus on self-determination also helps students integrate their disability into their self-image in a natural, positive way (Ruosso, 1984). Self-determination is the opposite of the paternalism that has plagued the lives of so many people with disabilities. Jorgenson (1997) provides practical suggestions about how to build self-determination, including involving students in important decisions regarding their education; transitioning students ages 18–21, particularly those not going on to postsecondary education, out of school settings to work and other typical adult settings; and integrating transition planning for students with disabilities into an inclusive process that helps students plan for their futures.

UNIVERSAL DESIGNThe alternative is to implement universal design to make spaces more accessible to those with disabilities this is empirically key to education and integrationHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraEmploy concepts of universal design. The principle of universal design first pertained to architecture; it called for public buildings to be designed so that people with disabilities would be able to use them. Buildings designed with this principle in mind, for example, would include ramps, automatic door opening devices, and fire alarm systems with lights activated for the deaf. Universal design allows for access without extra-ordinary means and is based on the assumption that disabled people are numerous and should be able to lead regular lives. This principle has recently been applied to schooling and shows tremendous promise in minimizing the impact of disability and transforming the curriculum for all students. For example, Rose and Meyer (2002) have developed new multimedia curriculum materials that enable all kinds of students to gain access to information: students with physical disabilities can turn pages with the touch of a key; students with visual disabilities can expand the size of the print; students with learning disabilities can have words that they cannot decode read aloud to them.

RECOGNITIONNOTE:This alt isn’t great, but it functions well against a cap K.

The alternative is to recognize the differences between disabilities. This is key to reject the assumption that they are all the same and will inevitably all be excluded from spaces. People with different disabilities need different methods to maximize educationHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraRecognize that diagnosis is important. To minimize the impact of disability, parents and educators need a clear under-standing of the nature of the student's disability. Clearly, to make good decisions for a 3rd grader who does not read well, we need to know whether the problem is related to mental retardation, dyslexia, attention difficulties, or some other source. The student with mental retardation may be performing up to his or her capacity, indicating that the current instructional approach is working well, whereas the student with attention problems may need targeted accommodations or carefully prescribed medication. The student with dyslexia may need a highly structured reading program provided by a teacher with specialized training. Another example of the importance of careful diagnosis is the case of two vision-impaired students who are learning to read and have the same visual acuity level. Although both are functioning well at present with the support of large-print texts, one student's vision impairment is progressive. Detailed knowledge of the disability would guide the school in deciding that this student also needs to learn Braille to ensure his or her success in the future.

ENCOURAGE CREATIVE EXPRESSIONThe alt is to encourage creative practices in the debate space that emphasize self-expression. This is key to inclusion of those with disabilities and challenging ableist assumptionsHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraEncourage students to develop and use skills and modes of expression that are most effective for them. Parents and educators naturally want children to have the ability to perform in a typical manner. But if instructional programs focus too much on this preference, many students with disabilities will miss education opportunities as schools disregard their more effective, disability-specific modes of learning and expression. Of course, deaf students who can read lips have a competitive advantage in a hearing world. However, research has long shown that most deaf children do not develop elaborate language through oral methods alone (Stuckless & Birch, 1966). Paradoxically, a deaf child who has developed language skills through learning American Sign Language from birth (or, more recently, through cochlear implants) may actually read lips better because he or she has developed a larger vocabulary.

PROMOTE HIGH STANDARDSThe alt is to promote high standards of everyone in order to reject the ableist assumption that those with disabilities are incapable at most thingsHehir 07 (Thomas Hehir is Professor of Practice and Director of the School Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educational Leadership: “Confronting Ableism.” Published in February, 2007. Accessed July 20th, 2015. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb07/vol64/num05/Confronting-Ableism.aspx)TheFedoraThe most damaging ableist assumption is the belief that people with disabilities are not intellectually capable. Therefore, although performance on a high-stakes test should not be the only means through which students with disabilities can demonstrate what they know and are able to do, the requirement to include students with disabilities in standards-based reform holds promise. Many in the disability community hope that this requirement will counter the low expectations that have plagued students with disabilities in the past. To improve the likelihood that students with disabilities will be successful on high-stakes tests, schools should provide early intervention for those experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties, give all students access to the regular curriculum whenever possible, and carefully choose accommodations in both instruction and assessment so that these accommodations minimize the effects of the disability.

ANSWERS TO ANSWERS

AT ABLEISM INEVITABLEAbleism has been addressed before, reforms are possible but haven’t yet gone far enoughBall 7/23 (Julie Ball: Education reporter for Citizen Times. Citizen Times: “25 years after ADA, advocates say work remains” published July 23rd, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/07/23/years-ada-advocates-say-work-remains/30575743/) TheFedora“The ADA was impressive in the fact that there was bipartisan support, and it really looked at all aspects of the disability community. It was broad. It was far-reaching,” said Vicki Smith, executive director of Disability Rights North Carolina. Smith’s nonprofit organization works to protect the rights of people with disabilities, in some cases filing lawsuits in cases where it suspects discrimination or a violation of the law. “It (the ADA) didn’t say, ‘This is hard so we’re only going to address the mainstream disabilities, the easy stuff, the stuff that we can see,’” Smith said. But advocates say more work needs to done to make sure communities are truly inclusive. “I think the biggest challenge that we have right now is changing the mindset of people who make assumptions about people with disabilities,” said Patricia Bland, regional director for the western region of the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Landmark law When she was in high school in Cherokee County, Della Sue Bryson had to speak up and advocate for herself. She wanted to take typing and driver’s education. But a stroke she suffered at the age of 2 caused some paralysis and mobility issues. The response she got from the school, “We don’t know how to teach you. We don’t know how to do that. How can we help you?” Bryson took the classes with some modifications. “It was a series of trying to see what would help and what wouldn’t help,” she said. Bryson, 45, said she believes that today students with disabilities have more opportunities in part because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. “That is something that changed. They have the opportunities, and the resources are available whereas before they may not have been,” Bryson said. When President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA on July 26, 1990, it was hailed as important and comprehensive civil rights legislation. The law opened up “a whole new world of access” and inclusion helping to challenge “the unfairness and discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities,” Bland said. Before the legislation, the U.S. did have some limited protections for people with disabilities, according to Smith. The Rehabilitation Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability in federal programs or programs getting federal dollars. “But it didn’t protect people from discrimination from public entities that didn’t get federal money or employers or public access in terms of sidewalks and public parks and things like that,” Smith said. The ADA expanded protections. “So probably the biggest thing the ADA did was, it was the first time there were comprehensive federal protections for people with disabilities really in any sector,” Smith said. The legislation covered a number of areas including employment. Companies could not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. Employers also were required to make “reasonable accommodations” for those employees with disabilities. Other key aspects of the ADA involved public accommodations and services, telecommunications and transportation. For Bob Jones, of Sylva, who is hearing impaired, the significance of the ADA has been communication. Jones, 54, began wearing a hearing aid at the age of 6. Gradually, the hearing aid became less and less effective. He now has a cochlear implant. At his old job, and at his current job as an independent living specialist with Disability Partners, he is able to use a video relay service making communication via the phone much easier. “The ADA has helped me tremendously, especially with making phone calls. Living and working in this day and age, phone calls and things like that are a necessity,” he said. Still some challenges Work to improve physical access for people with disabilities continues in Asheville 25 years after the ADA. “We’re still retrofitting,” said Barb Mee, transportation planner for the city of Asheville. Any time a new project is done, it is designed to meet ADA standards. “And we do retrofit things often in response to a request by someone with a disability. And we welcome those requests,” she said. An example of an area where the city has tried to improve accessibility is installation of some pedestrian signals to accommodate people with visual impairments. Buses have wheelchair lifts and a system that provides both a verbal announcement and a LED scrolling display of important bus stops, according to Yuri Koslen, transit projects coordinator. And new buses are low-floor buses to make it easier for passengers with disabilities to board. Wesley Satterwhite, director of disability services at Western Carolina University, says physical accessibility has improved. As director of disability services, Satterwhite works to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. That includes things like housing and classroom accommodations such as a sign language interpreter. Those things are helping make education more accessible, she said. But she said challenges remain. “I really think probably the biggest challenge that I see is getting people to really understand that disability is part of diversity, and that ableism is another barrier that people face just like racism, just like sexism,” Satterwhite said. “It’s about civil rights. It’s about equality. It’s about equity.” Bland’s agency provides services to those with disabilities so they can “enjoy competitive employment and live independently.” One piece of that is transitioning those with disabilities to jobs. “I think the

biggest challenge is the mindset that people with disabilities are a threat and that they’re just not capable. And that is completely erroneous thinking. We’re constantly trying to change that mindset,” she said. Another misconception is that all disabilities are visible. “We serve people with a whole range of disability. Many disabilities are hidden disabilities,” Bland said. “I kind of chuckle when I hear employers say we don’t have anybody with disabilities who works here. And I want to say ‘Oh yeah you do, you just don’t know who they are,’” she said. Eva Reynolds, associate director of Disability Partners, said stigma surrounding disabilities remains an issue. “I think people have a lot of ideas of what they think it looks like to be a person with a disability when the truth is it’s the largest minority group in the country,” she said. Disability Partners is a center promoting independent living. It’s not a facility, but instead provides information, peer support, assistance in developing independent living skills and advocacy. Reynolds points out the ADA “is the minimum.” “It doesn’t mean that communities, individuals, businesses, private citizens, whatever the case may be, can’t strive for more,” she said. Smith said with the exception of large employers, employment is probably the area where “we’ve made the least progress.” Another challenge for North Carolina has been compliance with the Olmstead decision, a 1999 Supreme Court ruling that arose out of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court ruling affected those who had historically been institutionalized. “The Olmstead decision said institutionalization for the sake of convenience and saving money isn’t justification for segregating those folks,” Smith said.

AT SPEAKING FOR OTHERSAbleism excludes the disabled from the debate space. Even if my partner and I don’t identify as disabled, our advocacy is crucial to represent people with disabilitiesZelinger 7/15 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Things You Must Know About The Disabilities We Can't See” published July 15th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/122187/5-things-you-must-know-about-the-disabilities-we-can-t-see)TheFedoraHere are five things people who live with invisible disabilities want people to know about what their experience is like — and, most importantly, how others can best understand and support them. 1. Their experience is largely unrepresented. Demi Lovato — a singer and advocate for bipolar disorder awarenessSource: HuffPost Live/YouTube Ableism is hardly a mainstream hot topic of conversation, but even when disabilities are generally discussed, invisible disabilities are often ignored. Alex Sanders, a 26-year-old with scoliosis, told Mic that while celebrities like Demi Lovato are raising awareness around mental health, "things like scoliosis or chronic pain, I don't think those are talked about at all in a really meaningful way." But even when disabilities are discussed, they're depicted as either "problems needing to be cured or as inspiration porn," Miranda Adams, an individual who lives with epilepsy, told Mic. This is "extremely harmful" she said, because when disabilities are depicted in such polarized ways, individuals' unique, complex experiences are invalidated in exchange for able-bodied individuals' validation. Because their experiences are largely ignored, the needs of people with non-appearing disabilities aren't always considered.

AT “DOESN’T ACCOUNT FOR INVISIBLE ONES”We solve by expanding awareness of disabilitiesZelinger 7/15 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Things You Must Know About The Disabilities We Can't See” published July 15th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/122187/5-things-you-must-know-about-the-disabilities-we-can-t-see)TheFedora2. Their experience is frequently questioned by those who don't get it . Source: Flickr Without being made aware of invisible disabilities, many people then tend to write non-visible disabilities off. Yet these issues can be debilitating for those who experience them. For example, even after surgery, scoliosis led to immense pain for Sanders. "I was in severe pain for about four years," she said. "It totally impacted my life. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't do the dishes, I couldn't go out with friends, I couldn't stand at concerts." Surgeries eventually helped alleviate the pain but Sanders said she still experiences a degree of chronic pain. Despite this harrowing reality, both Sanders and Adams said others frequently doubted their experiences were that severe. "When there is something we cannot do, whether that be from exhaustion or pain due to chronic illness or from depressive episodes or a particularly bad side effect, we are told we are faking it, that it really isn't that bad or we just need to suck it up," Adams said. "This fear of being told I was lying or making excuses often kept me from telling friends or teachers that I had a seizure, just perpetuating the invisibility and stigma." Beyond stigma, the normalized discrediting of invisible disabilities can prove economically detrimental to those who experience in them. As Joyce Smithey, a lawyer who specializes in labor and employment, told NPR in March, individuals with invisible disabilities who request accommodations are often told by their employers they "don't do that as a policy" — even though these individuals are legally entitled to these accommodations. 3. It can be socially and professionally challenging. Source: Pixabay Sanders' biggest source of anxiety while living with scoliosis — even in the midst of chronic pain and re-learning to walk — was that some friends and coworkers interpreted her disability as laziness and failed to understand the extent to which her disability debilitated her. "We live in a world of hyperbole where people say, 'I'm literally dying' all the time," she said. "If you actually feel like you're in enough pain to say that — how do you explain that without it sounding like it's more hyperbole? I think especially in the culture that we're in and the language millennials especially use, it's really hard to explain how bad your situation actually is." Sanders said she also faced hostility from others, as severe side effects from medication prescribed to her post-surgery rendered her physically unable to commute to work. "People couldn't seem to grasp that," she said, adding that they would question how sick she actually was. "I don't want anybody to worship me as an idol," Sanders said. "Everybody goes through their own battles and struggles. I just want somebody to be like, 'I understand you can't do this and I don't want you to feel guilty about it.'" 4. Some downplay their experiences to avoid awkward social situations. Source: Wikimedia Both Sanders and Adams described downplaying their experiences to manage others' judgment of them. "I would never break down and cry in the middle of work, because that's just not what you do," Sanders said. "And the people with chronic pain I know, that's not what they do. They smile and kind of truck it out until they can't, and they go home and that's when they collapse. I can't tell you how many times that my boyfriend would come home and I would be heaving in sobs because I was in so much pain." But Sanders' attempts to share her experience with others often resulted in off-base suggestions that she should "just stop" taking her medication if the side effects were so bad or "try yoga," although she was physically incapable of doing so. Downplaying her experience, therefore, seemed like the best option. Adams described this experience as "internalized ableism" in a 2014 blog post. "I have really started to believe I won't be able to succeed as a person with a disability unless I downplay it as much as I can," she wrote. Ideally, Sanders said, people should simply acknowledge others' experiences, rather than resisting it or offering unhelpful suggestions. 5. Dealing with these disabilities can be enormously expensive. Source: Wikimedia In addition to social struggles, invisible disabilities are costly to deal with. While the Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to provide coverage to those with pre-existing health conditions, people with disabilities still have to shoulder costs associated with their conditions. For example, Sanders was prescribed medication that personally cost her $500 a bottle, and only lasted 12 days. Even with two forms of medical insurance, she paid about $5,000 of a

$200,000 surgery — which was just one of three procedures she needed. In addition to the straight financial costs the experience cost Sanders time and energy — she spent countless hours on the phone fighting and negotiating various medical bills, she told Mic, and perhaps detrimentally continued to work throughout her recovery because she couldn't afford not to. 6. For some, the experience can be empowering. Source: Wikimedia Because many individuals with disabilities can "pass" as able-bodied, some with invisible disabilities have said their experiences are not "bad enough" to qualify them as disabled and feel isolated from potential support systems and communities. Adams said she struggled with this feeling until finding an online epilepsy forum where users talked about the neurological disorder as a disability and as an identity. Following suit helped her feel empowered. "By accepting [epilepsy] as part of who I was, rather than some external factor, I am able to better deal with those little annoyances, with the micro-aggressions, and with the misunderstanding from my friends," Adams said. "By looking at it from the perspective of an identity, it felt less like a disease that needed to be fixed, and helped me better accept that I would be living with this for the rest of my life." Claiming the experience as part of her identity also empowered Adams to discuss her experience and subsequently raise awareness about it. "The more open I am about my experiences, the more I can challenge the stigma surrounding disability and health," she said. "When I casually mention my neurologist or meds or struggles obtaining a driver's license, people often do a quick double-take, and I hope take a moment to reflect on how these things are a normal part of so many people's lives, even if they have never noticed." Being more aware of invisible disabilities can create a culture in which all individuals are with equal respect and dignity. But it's crucial to note the egregious disadvantages these individuals still unnecessarily, and often silently) face simply because they live with a disability. It's time to start a conversation and recognize that the struggles individuals face may not always be visible — but they must always be taken seriously.

AT “GOOD INTENTIONS”Good intentions don’t solveAaron 15 (Jessi Elana Aaron is an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Florida. The Washington Post: “‘Lame,’ ‘stand up’ and other words we use to insult the disabled without even knowing it” published May 13th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/13/lame-stand-up-and-other-words-we-use-to-insult-the-disabled-without-even-knowing-it/)TheFedoraLanguage is the bloodstream of society Those who perpetuate ableist language – that is, language that devalues disability – tend to make claims of good intentions. They mean no harm. But as pointed out in a recent New York Times article on racial bias, “good intentions do not guarantee immunity.” Indeed, the proof is in the pudding. The words used to describe disability itself are only the most obvious – and superficial – reflections of how disability is actually perceived. A closer look at our everyday language reveals a more insidious challenge. Human beings tend to construct their world through metaphor. And the human body, a universal experience (everyone has one, after all), is one of the most common bases for the development of new abstract meanings through grammaticalization – the process that forms new parts of grammar as languages change. Not only do we use body parts to create prepositions like inside (that is, “in the side of”) or behind, but we also encode our beliefs about the social meanings of certain body shapes or postures. We undoubtedly prefer the company of the upstanding citizen who stands for something. An upright person who stands proud, standing up to the crooked politicians and their twisted plans, leaving them without a leg to stand on. Our friend should be as straight as an arrow, and never just sit there or take it lying down. In a 1967 Saturday Review editorial (which was cited by sociologist Irving Kenneth Zola in his 1993 reflection on the language of disability), the author noted: Language…has as much to do with the philosophical and political conditioning of a society as geography or climate…people do not realize the extent to which their attitudes have been conditioned to ennoble or condemn, augment or detract, glorify or demean. Negative language inflicts the subconscious of most…people from the time they first learn to speak. Prejudice is not merely imparted or superimposed. It is metabolized in the bloodstream of society. What is needed is not so much a change in language as an awareness of the power of words to condition attitudes.

ANSWERS TO ABLEISM

THE A-STRAT<<Make a sincere apology>>Apology solvesTavuchis 91. (Nicholas. Senior Scholar in the Department of Sociology @ University of Manitoba. Meet Culpa: A Sociology of 'Apolog}' and Reconciliation pg. 8)In these admittedly general terms, then, apology expresses itself as the exigency of a painful re membering, literally of being mindful again, of what we were and bad as members and, at the same time, what we have jeopardized or lost by virtue of our offensive speech or action. And it is only by personally acknowledging ultimate responsibility, expressing genuine sorrow and regret, and pledging henceforth (implicitly or explicitlv)to abide by the rules, that the offender simultaneously recalls and is re-called to that which binds. As shared mementos, apologies require much more than admission or confession of the unadorned facts of wrongdoing or deviance. Thev constitute—in their most responsible, authentic, and. hence, vulnerable expression—a form of self-punishment that cuts deeply because we are obliged to retell, relive, and seek forgiveness for sorrowful events that have rendered our claims to membership in a moral community suspect or defeasible. So it is that the call for an apology always demands and promises more than it seems to. As anyone who has ever apologized in these circumstances well knows, the act is always arduous and painful, whether done voluntarily or at the urging of others. And yet. when this secular rite of expiation is punctiliously performed, and the remorseful admission of wrongdoing is convened into a gift that is accepted and reciprocated by forgiveness, our world is transformed in a way that can only be described as miraculous. All the more so because the gesture itself reiterates the reality of the offense while superseding it.

WORD PICS BAD

CALL-OUT CULTURECall out culture badAsam Ahmad is a Toronto-based writer who still has a hard time trusting words. He coordinates the It Gets

Fatter Project, a body positivity group started by fat queer people of colour. 3-2-15 http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/a-note-on-call-out-cultureCall-out culture refers to the tendency among progressives, radicals, activists, and community organizers to publicly name instances or patterns of oppressive behaviour and language use by others. People can be called out for statements and actions that are sexist, racist, ableist, and the list goes on. Because call-outs tend to be public, they can enable a particularly armchair and academic brand of activism: one in which the act of calling out is seen as an end in itself. What makes call-out culture so toxic is not necessarily its frequency so much as the nature and performance of the call-out itself. Especially in online venues like Twitter and Facebook, calling someone out isn’t just a private interaction between two individuals: it’s a public performance where people can demonstrate their wit or how pure their politics are. Indeed, sometimes it can feel like the performance itself is more significant than the content of the call-out. This is why “calling in” has been proposed as an alternative to calling out: calling in means speaking privately with an individual who has done some wrong, in order to address the behaviour without making a spectacle of the address itself. In the context of call-out culture, it is easy to forget that the individual we are calling out is a human being, and that different human beings in different social locations will be receptive to different strategies for learning and growing. For instance, most call-outs I have witnessed immediately render anyone who has committed a perceived wrong as an outsider to the community. One action becomes a reason to pass judgment on someone’s entire being, as if there is no difference between a community member or friend and a random stranger walking down the street (who is of course also someone’s friend). Call-out culture can end up mirroring what the prison industrial complex teaches us about crime and punishment: to banish and dispose of individuals rather than to engage with them as people with complicated stories and histories. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that there is a mild totalitarian undercurrent not just in call-out culture but also in how progressive communities police and define the bounds of who’s in and who’s out. More often than not, this boundary is constructed through the use of appropriate language and terminology – a language and terminology that are forever shifting and almost impossible to keep up with. In such a context, it is impossible not to fail at least some of the time. And what happens when someone has mastered proficiency in languages of accountability and then learned to justify all of their actions by falling back on that language? How do we hold people to account who are experts at using anti-oppressive language to justify oppressive behaviour? We don’t have a word to describe this kind of perverse exercise of power, despite the fact that it occurs on an almost daily basis in progressive circles. Perhaps we could call it anti-oppressivism. Humour often plays a role in call-out culture and by drawing attention to this I am not saying that wit has no place in undermining oppression; humour can be one of the most useful tools available to oppressed people. But when people are reduced to their identities of privilege (as white, cisgender, male, etc.) and mocked as such, it means we’re treating each other as if our individual social locations stand in for the total systems those parts of our identities represent. Individuals become synonymous with systems of oppression, and this can turn systemic analysis into moral judgment. Too

often, when it comes to being called out, narrow definitions of a person’s identity count for everything. No matter the wrong we are naming, there are ways to call people out that do not reduce individuals to agents of social advantage. There are ways of calling people out that are compassionate and creative, and that recognize the whole individual instead of viewing them simply as representations of the systems from which they benefit. Paying attention to these other contexts will mean refusing to unleash all of our very real trauma onto the psyches of those we imagine represent the systems that oppress us. Given the nature of online social networks, call-outs are not going away any time soon. But reminding ourselves of what a call-out is meant to accomplish will go a long way toward creating the kinds of substantial, material changes in people’s behaviour – and in community dynamics – that we envision and need.Call out culture just makes politics uncomfortable, it doesn’t make people changeChait 2015 (Jonathan; Is political correctness good for the left; Feb 12; mag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/political-correctness-good-for-the-left.html; kdf)The mistake here is imagining that political correctness can be measured by the travails of a discrete class of victims. Yes, people who were fired from student newspapers or driven out of listservs or had their performance or speech canceled can be thought of as victims, but their direct suffering is minor. Even the most extreme cases of coercion have contained effects. Members of the p.c. left can vandalize a dorm room or confiscate a protest sign, but their coercive power here runs up against the limits of the American legal system, which remains organized along broadly liberal lines. The real power they exert lies within the internal boundaries of the left. Political correctness prevents the left from reasoning internally. It makes questions of identity central to all political debate, then deems those topics beyond dispute. So the question of whether this method is effective at helping the left vanquish its enemies passes over the far more urgent question of what it does to the character of the left itself. Rosenberg, and some other critics, have taken issue with my premise that liberals, rather than the left, deserve credit for the leftward march of American history. This is an enormous and hazily defined disagreement that depends on what one means by “the left.” My essay describes p.c. ideology as a form of Marxist thought, substituting race and gender identities for economic ones, and assigning political rights on the basis of class identity rather than individuality. I’d argue that the historical record of Marxist regimes is an unambiguous disaster. Marxist regimes have failed everywhere they have been tried — not because of external pressure or the idiosyncratic personal failures of their leaders but flaws inherent in its ideological structure. Marxists are very good at crushing critics of their policies, but rather bad at devising the policies themselves. Those two facts

are not unrelated. The construction of effective policy requires internal reasoning, not the automatic identification of all criticism as the representation of a privileged class . That is to say, the liberal ideal of free

government is still the right one.

INTENT Them determining the meaning of what we say destroys our agency, it doesn’t take into context our intentRoss, PhD, 96 http://www.friesian.com/language.htmSuch defensiveness and bad faith accompanies the widely held conviction that the theory of "sexist language" and the program to institute "gender neutral" language are absolutely fundamental to the social and political project of feminism, to the point where mere criticism of the theory or the project can themselves be condemned as "sexual harassment" and subject to attempts at legal sanction. The theory of "sexist language," however, is no credit to feminism, for it is deeply flawed both in its understanding of the nature of language and in its understanding of how languages change over time. Since the ideology that there is "sexist language" seeks, indeed, to change linguistic usage as part of the attempt to change society and forms of thought, the latter is particularly significant. That the public and the intelligentsia have not been alerted and alarmed long ago that the project of "non-sexist language" is a clear example of what George Orwell called "New Speak," and is thus the reflex of a totalitarian ideology, continues to be alarming in its own right. Nor can we be reassured of the innocence of the goal when the feminist motto, "the personal is political," itself embodies a totalitarian rejection of privacy, private life, and the domain of civil society -- a Marxist politicization of all human existence. Nevertheless, the treatment here focuses on the linguistic issues, rather the ideological background, for which other pages at this site can be consulted. First of all, the theory of "sexist language" seems to say that words cannot have more than one meaning: if "man" and "he" in some usage mean males, then they cannot mean both males and females in other usage (i.e. nouns and pronouns can have both masculine and common gender). Although univocal meanings were once the ideal of philosophical schools like Logical Positivism, this view is absurd enough as a rule for natural languages (where equivocal meanings and ambiguity emerge through usage) that there is usually a more subtle take on it: that the use of "man" or "he" to refer to males and to both males and females means that maleness is more fundamental than femaleness, "subordinating" femaleness to maleness, just as in the Book of Genesis the first woman, Eve, is created from Adam's rib for the purpose of being his companion. Now, the implication of the Biblical story may well be precisely that Adam is more fundamental than Eve, but the Bible did not create the language, Hebrew, in which it is written. If we are going to talk about the linguistic structure of Hebrew as distinct from the social ideology of the Bible, it is one thing to argue that the system of grammatical gender allowed the interpretation of gender embodied in the story of Adam and Eve and something very much different to argue that such an interpretive meaning necessarily underlies the original grammar of Hebrew -- or Akkadian, Arabic, Greek, French, Spanish, English, Swahili, etc. -- or that such a system of grammatical gender requires such an interpretation. What a language with its gender system means is what people use it to mean. It is an evil principle to think that we can tell other people what they mean by what they say, because of some theory we have that makes it mean something in particular to us, even when they obviously mean something else. Nevertheless, there is now a common principle, in feminism and elsewhere (especially flourishing in literary criticism), that meaning is only in the response of the interpreter, not in the mind of the speaker, even if the speaker is to be sued or charged with a crime for the interpreter having the response that they do. There is also on top of this the Marxist theory of "false consciousness," which holds that "true" meaning follows from the underlying economic structure, today usually just called the "power" relationships. Most people are unaware of the power relationships which produce the concepts and language that they use, and so what people think they mean by their own statements and language is an illusion. The implications of these principles are dehumanizing and totalitarian: what individual people think and want is irrelevant and to be disregarded, even by laws and political authorities forcing them to behave, and speak, in certain ways. But they are principles that make it possible to dismiss the common sense view that few people speaking English who said "man" in statements like "man is a rational animal" were referring exclusively to males, even though this usage was clear to all, from the context, for centuries before feminism decided that people didn't "really" mean that. But even if some speakers really did mean that, it is actually irrelevant to the freedom of

individuals to mean whatever they intend to mean through language in the conventionally available forms that they choose. What was meant by the gender system in the languages that ultimately gave rise to Hebrew is lost in whatever it was that the speakers of those languages were saying to each other; but what we can say about the functioning of gender systems and about language in general is very different from the claims that the theory of "sexist language" makes.

ABLEISM-SPECIFICTheir analysis of exclusion fails to take into account unobserved disabilities, possessed by multiple people in the debate spaceZelinger 7/15 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Things You Must Know About The Disabilities We Can't See” published July 15th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/122187/5-things-you-must-know-about-the-disabilities-we-can-t-see)TheFedoraSome disabilities aren't exactly visible. They don't require a wheelchair, a hearing aid or any other piece of equipment that helps us know to give up our seats on the subway or not shake our heads when we see a seemingly able-bodied person park their car in a handicap parking spot. In fact, about 20% of people in the U.S. live with a disability, according to the 2010 U.S. census, but millions of those individuals live with what's commonly referred to as " invisible " or "non-appearing" disabilities like depression, epilepsy, chronic pain disorder or learning disabilities . These disabilities may vary in terms of severity or symptoms, but the people who live with them have one thing in common: They often encounter others who don't know these disabilities exist at all, and even more resistance to understand what it's like to live with these issues.

Studies of ableism rely on ableist assumptionsImrie ’96 (Rob Imrie has experience as a professor of Geography at Kings College and at London: Royal Holloway University of London. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers): “Ableist geographies, disablist spaces: towards a reconstruction of Golledge's 'Geography and the disabled'’ article revised in February 1995. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/622489?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents) TheFedoraGeographers have only recently started to research and write about the experiences of people with disabilities, yet there is some evidence that they are replicating some of the more problematical aspects of what we might term an 'ableist sociology'. Its main features are the utilization of conceptions of disability which are reducible to the functionalimitations of people with disabilities, the assertion of the normality (and naturalness) of able-bodiedness, the notion that disability is abnormal, even a product of deviant behaviour, and the assumption that the goal of society is to return disabled people back to a normal state (whatever that is). Any notion of celebrating, even recognizing, the vitality of difference seems beyond the emergent ableist geographies. This paper provides a critique of such geographies by considering the shortcomings of one of the more recent contributions in the genre, that by Golledge (1993). Introduction In recent times, geographers have made significant contributions to our understanding of both race and gender in the social construction of environments, yet have had little to say about the geography of people with disabilities (Laws 1994; McDowell 1992). While this reflects, in part, the relative absence of people with disabilities in academia, it also relates to their relative powerlessness in society more generally and to wider social discourses, and practices, which tend to portray disabled people as inferior, dependent and, by implication, of little or no value. Such conceptions are, as Oliver (1990) notes, still dominant and the term 'disablism' has been coined to describe socio-political processes which marginalize and oppress disabled people (Imrie and Wells 1993; Oliver 1990). As Oliver (1990) has commented, people with disabilities are people too, yet sociological theory, from where the dominant theorizations of disability stem, is, as Abberley (1987) notes, theoretically backward and a hindrance rather than a help. The dominant strands of theory individualize the nature and experiences of disability, suggesting that it is akin to a medical condition that requires treatment and/or a cure. In this way, any negative experiences which disabled people encounter in, for instance, moving around their environments or failing to obtain employment, is conceptualized as linked to individual impairment rather than resulting from forms of social and political discrimination While such conceptions are subject to a growing

critique, particularly by people with disabilities themselves, geographers have only started to research and write about the experiences of disabled people, yet there is evidence that they too are replicating some of the more problematical aspects of what we might term an 'ableist' sociology (see Andrews 1983; Golledge 1991, 1993). Its main features are the utilization of conceptions of disability which are reducible to the functional limitations of people with disabilities, the assertion of the normality (and naturalness) of able-bodiedness, the notion that disability is abnormal, even a product of deviant behaviour, and the assumption that the goal of society is to return disabled people back to a normal state (whatever that is). Any sense of celebrating, even recognizing, the vitality of difference seems beyond the emergent ableist geography. In turn, the methodological individualism, underpinning ableist conceptions of geography and the disabled, is generating studies devoid of structural socio-political content or of little understanding of how societal values, attitudes and structures may be conditioning the experiences of people with disabilitiesAbleism critique bad for a laundry list of reasonsCogburn 14 (Jon Cogburn: Professor in the Philosophy department at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. Jon Cogburn’s Blog: “What I should have said about anti-anti-ableism” published September 7th 2014. Accessed July 27th, 2015. http://drjon.typepad.com/jon_cogburns_blog/2014/09/what-i-should-have-said.html) TheFedoraI find many charges of ableism in the blogosphere to be problematic for a variety of reasons: The way that the problem of ableism is focused on in blogospheric exchanges often undermines the suffering and heroic struggles of many disabled people. Much of the struggle is against reality itself, not the social configuration theroff. It may very well be bad to call an idea "insane," but to reduce the badness of doing so to the wrongness of negative perceptions of insanity strikes me as cruel to the insane.* It's a real drag to be mentally ill. I don't find the focus on anti-ableism to be psychologically healthy with respect to dealing with my own limited disabilities.With many of them there's just no possible world where the world could accomodate me. I have to accommodate myself to the world. Consider dementia, a disability perhaps most of us will face at some point. Yes we desperately need social institutions that lighten misery of the demented, but it will still suck to be demented and to have demented family members no matter what anyone does. In such cases wisdom lies in accommodating yourself to the world, not bemoaning the way society doesn't accomodate you. This is a really difficult struggle, but it's reality. We don't need the protection of Shelley Tremaine (God bless her for all of the important work that she does) when she berates people for ableist speech. I find this protection infantilizing. I find the self-congratulatory nature of liberal speech policing to be off putting. With the important exceptions of the R word campaign and various anti-bullying efforts relating to GLBT issues, I don't think that censorious academic bloggers make very much of a real political difference. The pretense that we do probably prevents many of us from putting in the real work to make a difference. While political correctness is an important and necessary solution to the kind of bullying shown in the first two seasons of Mad Men, I agree with Freddie DeBoer that policing of speech in social media has been really destructive. When we take such delight in denouncing people who we don't agree with in terms of moral censure, we end up just preaching to the converted. I have tried to indicate that I realize there are moral dangers attendant to each point. Most importantly every human life has immeasurable value and I don't mean to imply anything otherwise when I mention that reality presents problems for most disabled people in ways that go above and beyond our contemporary organization of society. I also realize that for most adult disabled people, it becomes a part of your identity and if things are going well something that you would not cast away, for that would be casting yourself away.

Ableist language inevitableKesler 11 (Jennifer Kesler is a freelance online writer and proclaimed “feminist blogger”. She is the creative lead at Lojo Group, a branding, marketing and advertising agency based in Sacramento, California. What Privilege: “Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language.” Published February 10th, 2011. Accessed July 25th, 2015. http://whatprivilege.com/replacing-crazy-for-ableism-and-preciseness-of-language/) TheFedoraThere are some other words which may or may not be ableist, depending who you talk to. Perhaps this is the right time to say that I have had depression and anxiety issues since childhood and personally don’t find “crazy” ableist except when it’s being used to describe a person who’s not conforming to your expectations. Different people have different sensitivities. To be safe, dumping all of the following words from your publication vocabulary would be wise. But they are not indisputably ableist – there is debate. Lunatic/lunacy. Refers to the belief that the moon could make people deranged, which we now know is just silly. But it’s still a mental health label, and calling someone a lunatic is a little like calling one of those armchair diagnoses we discussed above. I

think “lunacy”, however, is acceptable, as in “This law the politician has proposed is sheer lunacy.” That suggests a very real phenomenon, in which humans get swept up in a mob mentality and develop horrifically bad judgment. But that’s the only context I use it in. [See comments for arguments that lunacy is ableist.] Nuts. Purely a euphemism for crazy, so most people who find crazy ableist will also object to it. But, again with the varying sensitivities.

SPEAKING FOR OTHERS LINK Automatically attempting to assist disabled persons without considering that they can advocate for themselves is ableistZelinger 7/7 (Julie Zeilinger: a freelance author from the Barnard College class of 2015. Mic.com: “6 Forms of Ableism We Need to Retire Immediately” published July 7th, 2015. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://mic.com/articles/121653/6-forms-of-ableism-we-need-to-retire-immediately)TheFedora4. Assuming people with disabilities have no autonomy Source: Getty "There is a very narrow-minded perception of disability," Cannington told Mic. "That narrow-minded assumption that all individuals with disabilities need and want certain things," and assuming those individuals "constantly need help without actually asking the person [if they do]," is a common ableist experience Cannington and far too many others have faced. "Automatically helping us without asking first should never be done," Tiffiny Carlson said in a 2013 Huffington Post article. "We know when to ask for help. Just wait for us to speak up."

CAPCap is the root cause of ableismBarnes 12 (Colin Barnes: Professor of Disability Studies, Univ4rsity of Leeds and Visiting Professor of Disability Studies, University of Halmstad, Sweden. The Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies: “The Social Model of Disability: Valuable or Irrelevant?” copyright 2012. Accessed July 24th, 2015. http://www.mcgill.ca/files/osd/TheSocialModelofDisability.pdf) TheFedoraTo understand the significance of contemporary understandings of disability it is important to remember that until very recently ‘disability’ was viewed almost exclusively as an individual, medical problem or ‘personal tragedy’ in western culture. Yet there is a wealth of anthropological and sociological evidence to suggest that societal responses to people with impairments or long term health conditions varies considerably across time, culture and location. See for example, (Hanks and Hanks, 1948; Lemert, 1951; Ingstad and Whyte, 1995; Miles, 1995; 2001; Ingstad, 2001). The philosophical and cultural basis upon which the individualistic negative response to impairment rests is rooted firmly in the foundations of western culture. Whilst the vast majority of people with impairments were integrated into the community prior to the industrial revolution, there is substantial evidence that oppression 2 and prejudice was widespread (Ryan and Thomas, 1980; Garland, 1995; Stiker, 1999). There is also general agreement that the economic and social upheavals that accompanied the coming of industrial capitalism precipitated the institutionalization of discriminatory policies and practices. Industrialisation, urbanisation, changing work patterns, and accompanying ideologies: liberal utilitarianism, medicalisation, eugenics and social Darwinism, all contributed to and compounded ancient fears and prejudices. Taken together these structural forces provided intellectual justification for more extreme discriminatory practices, notably, the systematic removal of disabled people from the mainstream of economic and social life (Finkelstein, 1980; Oliver, 1990; Barnes, 1990, 1991, 1997; Gleeson, 1999; Borsay, 2005).

Ableism is inherently tied to social relations and discrimination against poverty. Only focus on class difference solvesAaron 15 (Jessi Elana Aaron is an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Florida. The Washington Post: “‘Lame,’ ‘stand up’ and other words we use to insult the disabled without even knowing it” published May 13th, 2015. Accessed July 25th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/13/lame-stand-up-and-other-words-we-use-to-insult-the-disabled-without-even-knowing-it/)TheFedoraThough it may seem easy enough to rid ourselves of the language thought of as offensive at a given moment in time, a glance at the history of such terms makes it clear that erasing words will not erase the social structures behind them. Instead, words referring to disfavored groups tend to go through what psychologist Steven Pinker has called the “euphemism treadmill.” With regard to physical disability, for instance, just in the past few decades, several terms have been run off the track: Since the 8th century, lame was commonly used in everyday speech to describe a physical disability or a limp, before it started to be used as a negative descriptor in the 20th century. With time, this use of lame was abandoned in favor of new terms that had not (yet) acquired such undesirable connotations and were therefore considered less offensive, such as handicapped. But by the 1980s, many abandoned handicapped for disabled, or, influenced by the “people first” movement, people with disabilities. Some hyper-euphemized terms, such as differently-abled and alter-abled, never enjoyed widespread acceptance among disability communities or among the general public. Another term, physically challenged, was both limited in scope and quickly parodied – for example, “vertically challenged” for “short” – and it quickly fell out of common use. Some of these changes coincided with groundbreaking civil rights legislation, like IDEA, a 1975 law that guarantees access to education for children with disabilities, and the ADA, a comprehensive civil rights law, passed in 1990, that prohibits disability-based discrimination and seeks to guarantee equal opportunities for social inclusion for those with disabilities. Nonetheless, social marginalization and poverty remain tied to disability. For this reason, language

policing is nothing more than a wild goose chase. Even if it succeeds, without concurrent social change, it’s destined to fail: for every new term that emerges, it will eventually be transformed in everyday speech to mean something negative.