Ableism is defined as “the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior” by Mirriam Webster
Examples of Ableism that Access Living offers:
- Asking invasive questions about the medical history or personal life of someone with a disability
- Assuming people have to have a visible disability to actually be disabled
- Questioning if someone is ‘actually’ disabled, or ‘how much’ they are disabled
- Asking, “How did you become disabled?”
Never before incurring my severe TBI, had I experienced prejudice of any kind. I feel very fortunate for this truth. Once I became disabled, however, I’ve incurred prejudice, routinely.
Admittedly, survivors are known for becoming fixated on subjects. I do recognize that this is true of me & presently ableism is my fixation. My fixation is certainly aggrandized by the knowledge that I’m uniquely able to speak to this (through abundant personal experience). This truth in combination w/ the reality that I have an applicable skill (writing), with which to communicate this unarticulated (by a survivor of a severe brain injury) prejudice, only aggrandizes my desire to do so!
Within each stage of recovery, I’ve experienced all 4 of the prejudices articulated above, in different veins, without legitimate basis.
My hope is to increase awareness, as many uninformed individuals ask any of the aforementioned questions out of curiosity, without realizing that these questions are, in fact, an act of prejudice. These questions are quite offensive to survivors. An overwhelming number of survivors attest to this reality.
A re-articulation of a personal example: A former housemate of mine, whom I previously identified as making me aware that ableism exists, finalized her predjudice tutorial by inflicting the prejudice she had described to me, on me. She felt pacified, because when she told me that a nurse (like her) could be fired for enacting prejudice on a survivor, I reacted by professing my obvious love for her son (who she told me her job largely financially supports) & stating that I’d never take that recourse.
This was before she solicited prejudice to me. This statement of mine, pacified her & called forth her verbal abuse of & to me. I fact checked (occupational hazard) her statement about a nurse being let go for enacting abuse on a survivor with my specialty psychologist, who told me that the abuser, was, per usual, full of shit.
Much more enticing for me to keep quiet, is the truth that currently her son’s primary caregiver, is his father. It’s safe to assume that her loosing her job, or being demoted, would necessitate them switching roles. Because I adore her son & the quality of his character is clearly largely due to his dad (her partner) being his primary caregiver. It wouldn’t be at all fair to damage his quality of life, due to her exemplified, ableist character.