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As a practitioner who has been engaged with social justice and disability advocacy, I aim to align with my values when working with activists, educators, practitioners, organizations, or individuals.
I view disability not through a medical or pathological lens, but through a socio-political one, understanding how society influences, builds, and designs the world around us and the impacts this has on disabled people.
I use Talila L Lewis’ 2022 definition of ableism which states ableism is:
“A system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. This systemic oppression that leads to people and society determining people's value based on their culture, age, language, appearance, religion, birth or living place, "health/wellness", and/or their ability to satisfactorily re/produce, "excel" and "behave." You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism.” working definition by @TalilaLewis, updated January 2022, developed in community with disabled Black & negatively racialized folks.
This definition addresses how all systems of oppression are linked and rely on each other to function and uphold dominance over groups of individuals including disabled people. Ableism is no just discrimination against disabled people, it’s much more complex than that.
My work is informed by disability justice concepts and principles, as coined by sins invalid and several multiply-marginalized and disabled individuals, understanding that disability rights, policies, laws, and governance will not alone liberate us.
I use intersectionality as an approach to my work, as informed by Kimberle Crenshaw, and included as a disability justice principle. I understand that disabled experiences vary, and the experience of a white, cis, wealthy, disabled person is much different than that of a Black or indigenous, working class, disabled person.
This is how ableism and issues within disability are interconnected with systems of oppression.
Beyond rights and policies, disability teaches us that we protect one another.
Throughout my work, you will see me using identity-first language, which is my personal preference and how I chose to identify. I do believe my disability defines me, and to think of that as a negative is to think about disability as a negative. In reality, disability is just another way of being and existing. My person-hood is intertwined with my disabilities and they influence the way I exist and navigate this world.
Disability is linked to everything and anything, and I’m here to guide through making those connections.
In our current political and cultural climate, disability issues exist in:
Climate justice: through the displacement and further disablement of people impacted by climate catastrophes like wildfires, flooding, heat waves, and pollution
https://orionmagazine.org/article/aquifers-disability-water-access/
https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/2181/1441
Immigration and border justice: how disabled people are forced to migrate for medical care, or how the migration process itself can be disabling. The unjust and ableist treatment of mentally ill and intellectually and developmentally disabled people in detention centers and concentration camps.
Queer and Trans Justice: through the denial of medical care for trans and disabled individuals, the violence and harm trans individuals experience, and through the “non-normative” and “unconventional “ ways queer disabled bodies exist.
https://www.downtothestruts.com/episodes/trans-justice
Racial justice: through police violence and the high statistics of Black disabled folks killed by police (~50%). The expectations of assimilation and proximity to whiteness and normalcy that’s pushed more on Black and Brown bodies and the consequences of not performing these well (getting pathologized and labeled inferior).
https://inquest.org/disability-justice-demands-abolition/
War and genocide: being critical of nation-states that disable civilians as a war tactic by maiming
https://www.rdsjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/1320?articlesBySimilarityPage=21
More Painful Than Death”: Viewing the Palestinian Genocide Through Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim - https://liberatedtexts.com/reviews/more-painful-than-death-viewing-the-palestinian-genocide-through-jasbir-puars-the-right-to-maim/
Native Disability Justice - https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2019/03/17/indigenous-lives-and-disability-justice/
More on disability justice and homelessness, addiction and gender justice coming soon!
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