The impact disability has on an individual’s ability to live and thrive in the modern world is incompressible to those of able body and mind. The majority of this impact is not caused by the physical or mental limitations inherent to disabilities, but rather structural, cultural, and societal ableism. The prevalence of ableism impacts every part of disabled people’s lives and can lead to their deaths or further impairment. Disabled people are neglected, deprioritized, and discriminated against in various public and private sectors. This divide is evident in several first-hand accounts, statistics and research papers. Many people assume disabled struggles can be attributed entirely to their physical or mental limitations. This paper will show how ableism impacts access to work, education and housing. The often unnoticed and pervasive nature of ableism negatively impacts all people regardless of disability status.
Defining Disability
Disability is a complex identifier that covers a range of diverse human conditions. On the Government of Canada’s official web page where they define disability, they provide the preface that due to “its complexity, there is no single, harmonized “operational” definition of disability across federal programs.” It is difficult for officials and disabled activists alike to agree on language that adequately covers all disabled individuals. One widely accepted definition states, “Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations” (Government of Canada). This definition is used by several world organizations and attempts to describe the various affects disability has on an individual rather than listing requirements to qualify as disabled. In summary, a disability is something that impacts an individual’s ability to interact with their body, society or/and the world around them in some capacity.
Some disabilities are physical, which may have effects like causing pain, limiting mobility or impacting senses. Common physical disabilities are blindness, deafness, paralysation, chronic illness and limb difference. Other disabilities are mental, such as learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. This includes neurodivergences such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia and auditory processing disorder. There is not a clear divide between physical and mental disabilities. Many physical disabilities have mental effects and vice versa. Some physical and mental disabilities have similar impacts and accommodations, such as deafness and auditory processing disorder. Often physical disability negatively impacts the mental state of individuals. Additionally, conditions such as traumagenic tremors and psychosomatic chronic pain have mental origins but are physically disabling. Alongside the unclear line defining what disabilities are physical and mental, many physical and mental disabilities are comorbid, meaning one is more likely to occur in an individual that has another. One study on the impact of learning disability in Canada found, “[o]f all the people who indicated that they had a learning limitation, 5.6% (35,160) stated that it was their sole condition, while 94.4% (595,880) indicated that they had multiple limitations” (Brennan S. 2). These limitations were most often issues with mobility, agility or pain.
Finally, when discussing disability, scholars debate person-first language (“person who has a disability”) vs identity-first language (“disabled person”). Identity-first language will be used through this paper, as this paper is about disability a whole, and the disabled author prefers identity-first language.
Defining Ableism
Ableism is the bias against, discrimination towards and mistreatment of disabled people. This exists on personal, systematic and societal levels. “One of the main challenges disabled individuals face in daily life is the ubiquity of ableism” (Andrews, Erin E., et al. 454), shares a researcher in a study of how disabled people were failed in the Covid 19 pandemic. Ableism not only negatively impacts disabled people, but shapes what disability is. Many aspects of disabled conditions and limitations are caused by the ableist nature of society, but disability would not disappear in an accommodating society. In addressing the struggles of homeless youth, researchers argue that “‘Disability’ is less a function of mind/body difference than of how society understands and responds to these differences" (Baker Collins, Stephanie, et al. 101). Sharing that many of the ways people with disabilities lives are impacted is not because of disability in a vacuum, but rather the failure of systems to support disabled people. Ableism furthers the divide between disabled and non-disabled people, “often result[ing] in psychological privileges for people without disabilities and […] disadvantages for people with disabilities" (Lindsay, Sally, et al. 20). The normalization and systematic support of ableism prevents disabled people from fully participating in society. Disabled people are often excluded from discussions about disabled lives in policy, further enabling systems to act against them and preventing them from working to make meaningful changes in their quality of life.
Though ableism separates disabled and non-disabled people, it negatively impacts everyone. Infrastructure that fails to accommodate disabled people also negatively impacts temporarily injured people, guardians with strollers and otherwise non-disabled people struggling in some capacity with moving through hostile architecture. Disabled people are not an entirely separate category of society, many disabilities are caused by accidents or develop as one ages. The very people that implement ableist policy may find themselves impacted by it in the near or distant future. Even those of completely able body and mind are negatively impacted by the precedents ableism sets about pushing oneself to the limit and the hostile environments it breeds. Ableism quantifies life by a measure of productivity and harms everyone, even those who find themselves perpetrating it.
Ableism in the Workplace
Many disabled individuals struggle with obtaining and maintaining employment. One might assume that this is due to their disability restricting them from working. Though disability can impact and completely prevent some people from working, studies show many disabled people are discriminated against in the hiring process and workplace, making ableism to blame for many people with disabilities struggles with employment. In a study of ableism and workplace discrimination, researchers found that “[o]ver half of all discrimination complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, […] identified disability as the reason a person was discriminated against" (Lindsay, Sally, et al. 21). This alarming statistic shows how widespread ableism is in the workplace. When interviewing disabled people personally, researcher Ana Bê found “[in relation] to employment, participants also reported experiences of disablism[1] for instance when it comes to employers not accommodating their needs or not believing their illnesses were real” (186). These personal accounts show the struggles disabled people have in the workplace and their difficulty accessing accommodations. Workplace discrimination does not just impact disabled people on an emotional level and prevent access to reasonable and necessary accommodations; It also affects their income. The study discussed above that explored ableism in the workplace found, “people with disabilities whose condition did not limit their work performance were paid about 10% less than a comparison group without disabilities. They reported that people with disabilities earned 21% less than people without disabilities after controlling for the effect of other pay determining factors" (Lindsay, Sally, et al 31). They also found "workers with a disabling illness were at four times greater risk of being fired than those with no illness or disability" (Lindsay, Sally, et al 32). These statistics show the disparity between the treatment of disabled and non-disabled employees. This specific discrimination prevents disabled people from making fair wages and keeping jobs. Disabled people are discriminated against in all aspects of employment and the workspace. This ableism greatly impacts their independence, ability to live, and quality of life.
Ableism in Higher Education
Both physical and mental disabilities greatly impact individuals’ ability to access and succeed in studies. Many disabled individuals are unable to participate in higher education, which partially accounts for struggles with income and finding work. Those that are able to further their education, often are unable to do so in the same capacity as their able-bodied peers. Statistics Canada found that “53.1% disabled individuals report increased time to complete education” (Brennan S. 3). This increase in time makes education cost more than it does for non-disabled students and delays disabled people’s ability to enter the work force. Ana Bê interviewed and surveyed several disabled people in higher education from around the world to study the impact of ableism on higher education. Students reported experiencing ableism in various ways, such as buildings being inaccessible, educators catering to non-disabled students, and the curriculum excluding disabled history and representation (Bê, Ana. 184). These experiences showed a presence of ableism in the system itself, teachers, and peers. This limits students opportunities at school, sets the precedent that they cannot rely on teachers and isolates them from classmates. Bê summarizes this impact stating “[a] system that does not account for the access needs of disabled students is clearly imposing particular kinds of barriers that will disadvantage students in particular ways. Having to fight for recognition of a person’s access needs and having to deal with justifying those needs in the first place, constitutes an affront to human dignity” (Bê, Ana 185).
Ableism in Housing Supports
Due to barriers in systems, such as employment and education as discussed above, many disabled people struggled to support themselves and end up homeless. Disabled people then struggle to receive support that will allow them to obtain housing, and face discrimination in systems meant to support homeless people, such as shelters. Disabled people are overrepresented in shelters. In a statics collection done by the Spanish government focusing on homeless populations, “[r]esults showed that 37% of participants reported having a disability, a prevalence that is almost twice that among women in the general Spanish population” (National Statistics Institute, 2012). [explanation of statistic]. In addition to being overrepresented in homeless shelters, disabled Spanish women spend longer durations in homeless. The average duration of homelessness for disabled women is 108.98 months, in comparison to the overall average of 57.7 months (Guillén, Ana I., et al. 573). This shows the consequences of systematic failure of disabled people and the lack of resources they have. Disabled people are also failed within shelters. A study conducted in Ontario on homeless youth found a pattern of intellectually and developmentally disabled teenagers being failed by housing supports. These teens are mis-labled as non-compliant due to difficulties with their disability, and are often unaware of what supports they need. An employee at one of the shelters that was studied shared, "You get very kind of like, blunt comments like “I’m not stupid, or I’m not retarded, I don’t need that”. Those are things that sometimes the youth will say right?" (Baker Collins, Stephanie, et al. 103). Even the language these kids use to describe themselves is derogatory, as their only exposure to disability is insults from their peers. Employees aren’t trained to adequately deal with disabled youth and kids aren’t taught how to ask for help. The ableism disabled youth face is present in the systems that failed them, the safety net not built to catch them and their own beliefs. These youth don’t receive help because asking for it is admitting something is wrong - that something is wrong with them. When all other systems fail, shelters fail disabled people one last time. No place in society is built for disabled bodies and minds.
Conclusion
Disabled and non-disabled people are only separated by time and circumstance. Most people who die of old age will die in some capacity disabled. Everyone is one bad accident away from lifelong disability just like the one discussed about. Though the impact of disability may seem distant to some individuals, it will eventually impact them personally. It will not be the physical or mental limitations that impact them the most, but more than likely, societal treatment of that disability and by extension, them. That is how society is more disabling than a failing body or mind ever will be.
Works Cited
Andrews, Erin E., et al. “No Body Is Expendable: Medical Rationing and Disability Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The American Psychologist, vol. 76, no. 3, 2021, pp. 451–61, https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000709.
Baker Collins, Stephanie, et al. “The Invisibility of Disability for Homeless Youth.” Journal of Social Distress and Homeless, vol. 27, no. 2, 2018, pp. 99–109, https://doi.org/10.1080/10530789.2018.1480892.
Bê, Ana. “Ableism and Disablism in Higher Education: The Case of Two Students Living with Chronic Illnesses.” Alter, vol. 13, no. 3, 2019, pp. 179–91, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alter.2019.03.004.
Brennan S. “Participation and activity limitation survey, 2006: Facts on learning limitations.”Statistics Canada: Ottawa; 2009.
“Federal Disability Reference Guide.” Canada.Ca, Government of Canada, 16 Dec. 2022, www.canada.ca/en/employment-socialdevelopment/programs/disability/arc/reference-guide.html#h2.3-h3.1.
Guillén, Ana I., et al. “Disability, Health, and Quality of Life among Homeless Women: A Follow-up Study.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 91, no. 4, 2021, pp. 569–77, https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000559.
Lindsay, Sally, et al. “Ableism and Workplace Discrimination Among Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, vol. 33, no. 1, 2023, pp. 20–36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-022-10049-4.
National Statistics Institute. (2012). Survey of Social Integration and Health.
Robey, K. L., Beckley, L., & Kirschner, M. (2006). Implicit infantilizing attitudes about
disability. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 18, 441– 453. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10882-006-9027-3
[1] Disablism and ableism are synonyms
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