ableism

[ey-buh-liz-uhm]

noun

1. discrimination against disabled people.

   laws to prevent ableism, racism, and sexism in the workplace.

2. the tendency to regard people with a disability as incomplete, diminished, or damaged, and to measure the quality of life with a disability against a nondisabled standard.

   Ableism reinforces the idea that disability is a personal tragedy.

ableism

/ ˈeɪbəlˌɪzəm /

noun

1. discrimination against disabled or handicapped people

Sensitive Note

See able-bodied

Other Word Forms

• ableist adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ableism¹

First recorded in 1980–85; able ( def. ) + -ism ( def. )

Example Sentences

"Disabled people are not being given the support that non-disabled people get, and to me that is the definition of discrimination and ableism," she said.

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Naïvety is intoxicating and no one likes confronting their own ableism or mortality.

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According to Stanford University economist Nicholas A. Bloom, this opposition to remote working is partially rooted in a specific form of prejudice: ableism.

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"The embedded ableism that's in the way that we've designed everything, because it's people who are able-bodied, who have done the designing," she added.

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The debate has sparked allegations of ableism, ruined legacies, inspired a new Louis Theroux documentary, and an international conversation about the power dynamics between disabled people and those who care for them.

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