Ableism vs. Disablism

At some point, people around me starting saying "differently abled" instead of the word "disabled". I'm not sure when or where or how it started, it just became a thing.

It very much so confuses me when I see inaccessible places. I see them very often, ranging from stairs being the only way up to having only one accessible toilet room. I just don't understand why all places can't be accessible. It would of course be amazing for the disabled people who need it, but it will also be comfortable for abled people who don't necessarily need it, it would make the world an altogether more comfortable and more inclusive place. Why are accessible places so rare and not the norm? Who isn't bothered by how small stalls are? Who isn't bothered by booming loud noises and overly bright lights? Who doesn't hate going up the stairs? Who isn't okay with theatres having captions in the movie? It has always confused me. It's not like abled people are going to be affected by changes like these.

I picked up the somewhat weird academic habit of always writing (dis)ability (dis)ableism etc in my work because of how interlinked and self-constituting all these categories of able-bodied (i.e. not disabled) and disabled (i.e. not able-bodied) seem to be.

This was a really good summary video though. Always love these.

There are dragons. They just don’t breathe fire

"Basically, they're the person that is slap bang in the middle of all possible variations of what it means to be human"
You heard it here first folks, only non binary people are capable of being able. (But still usually aren't)

On the point of making the world better for disabled people making it better for everyone is automatic doors. A lot of people don't even notice the doors anymore but the difference when the automatic door is not present is pretty stark. (... I have stood in front of a non automatic door waiting for it to open while holding my groceries)
Things like ramps, hand rails, riding carts, grocery pick up: a lot of people use these services but they started for disabled people.

My daughter just finished being on crutches for three weeks because of a bad cut on the bottom of her foot, and as she bemoaned the fact that it "made everyone look at her", she also questioned how she would do things like carry stuff and open doors. How would she carry a lunch tray??? I told her when I was in school, someone would have been assigned to carry her tray, or a lunch lady might, or a teacher might, anyway someone would do that. That is not a big deal. It happens (though apparently no one in her grade school had ever injured a leg, which makes me fear for the amount of sunshine and outdoor play children get now). It is literally the SCHOOL'S JOB to get what you need. They Will Do That.
Three weeks later, she had survived "being looked at", and it occurred to me that it was good for the rest of the school to see someone on crutches, to see them doing things and out and about. Anyone at any time can become disabled. It's good for children to see that it doesn't mean the end of the world, and it makes us all more compassionate.

So like the difference between heteronormativity and homophobia or white supremacy and racism

I've been adding this into my vocabulary now. Thanks for bringing it to our attention! I sure hope your lung infection feels better soon and that you get some quality R &R / healing time

My wife & I couldn't stop laughing at "will there be a test". She said it was like an old Victoria Wood sketch
Sorry about your lung infection, sounds painful. Hope the improvements continue & accelerate

I use a cane everyday for my sciatic nerve pain and I'm tryinging to get a new job right now.
The fact that I seriously have to think about how me having a cane will influence my ability to get hired is stressful!!
Yes I can walk without it, and I use it mainly as preventative care so I may not be in pain right that second, but if I don't use it I WILL be in pain LATER.
I firmly belive that employers may not hire me just to avoid the 'hassle' of accomidateing me, or would hire me then not actually do anything TO accommodate me.
It was so frustrating that I had to get a doctors note saying I was in enough pain just to be able to sit down at work. AGH.
Great video!

I dont tell my employers that i have epilepsy until ive worked there for a couple of months.

Great video!

Yeah, I have something that's considered a disability but I'm completely able-bodied so I don't usually think of myself as "disabled" but technically I am and it's weird because I wouldn't tell anyone else with a non-physical disability that they're not disabled?
(Anyway I recently got turned down for disability services because I guess I'm not disabled enough for them so)

This is interesting right from the start and while I definitely haven't finished given I have an invisible developmental disability I expect to learn something I definitely should understand.

Komodo dragon exists

So ableism is the the needs of the disabled are ignored, while disableism is active antagonism towards the disabled (like that many jobs will have the requirement of needed to be able to lift 40 pounds even if that’s needed for the job at all or can easily be worked around)

yeah f the disabilists

I'm confused. There seems to be some discrepancy between a lot of the comments talking about 'disableism' as a word to define a specific type of ableism where able-bodied/able-bodied 'looking' people are discriminated against by others not believing they have a disability, but I've watched the video pretty carefully (I think?) trying to find where she introduces that as the definition of the word and it never happens. I'm really interested in this topic as it would be a very useful term to describe a lot of things in my life but am frustrated that the video and the comments section (which is the only place I found this definition that fits me) don't match at all. I think Jessica is saying that disableism is more pointedly anti-disability, whereas ableism is exclusive of/ignorant of disability. Am I right?

What's happening in Canada right now has me terrified for friends. Issues with housing and medical help has the government expanding MAID assistance. They'd rather help people to die than help them to live. It's horrible.

Hidden disabilities are so hard :( Because of that added way in which some people assume 'you're fine' because they literally can't see your struggle. I literally lost a compensation court case for this very reason (I'm struggling everyday with post concussion syndrome, ptsd and sensory issues), yet because on my birthday I went into a supermarket and bought sushi (before going home to sleep for a few hours to rest of course they cut out the resting parts), I'm apparently 'fine' :/ even though they literally saw how my brain struggles in person when made to cognitively work hard to the point I couldn't comprehend words anymore :( Just because I have go to a shop sometimes, does not mean 'I'm fine' :/ it means I'm doing my best to live life (and put up with the awful stress from overlapping noises & the visual stimuli from moving ads that cause migraines & nausea), just as someone in a wheelchair can go into a supermarket (if it's accessible). 100% invisible disabilities need more awareness, and society needs to consider them when making a place 'accessibility friendly' (like maybe have multiple quiet time hours daily in supermarkets instead of just 1 hour on a Tuesday at 10am, sigh, because apparently almost the entire neuro-diverse population don't have jobs and only need groceries on Tuesdays in the morning :/ looking at you Australia).

Honestly ableism and disablism is sadly something I am really familiar with as even in hospital when I was told I’d have to use a wheelchair and a carer for the rest of my life after 10 years of rugby and weightlifting …. The nurses said it was a shame because I was Too Young to be in a wheelchair and disabled. Even though clearly can’t be too young cuz it happened 😂😬🫣

WHY DOES THE WORD ABLEISM HAVE AN "E" WHEN "DISABLISM" DOESN'T???? LOL. ENGLISH IS TOUGH. THANKS FOR THE VIDEO!

Hello lovely Jessica ;)
I liked this video, it was very helpful. Thank you for this explanation. 
Greetings from Holland, 
Eva

I was wondering if someone could help with my confusion, only the oxford English dictionary uses the term able bodied in their definition of ableism, other dictionaries use it to refer to discrimination against anyone with a disability, is this a recent change or just an Oxford thing.

I had no idea you had to breathe to sleep until i got diagnosed with sleep apnea. Now i breathe at night, i sleep, and my heart doesn’t do as many scary things at night.

My husbands mother (and my crazy mother I quit speaking to completely last year because she had tried to ruin my life with LIES telling people I am not disabled! LUNATIC!!) still dislikes me and thinks I am lying about my disabilities. 🙄I am a 100% disabled and unable to work status through veterans affairs.
I am also suffering from Lyme Disease. Every day I feel like HELL. And now I have to file for SSD. Even if I got $6,000 a month on disability, his mom thinks I'm faking and the government is lying! 😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 ABSURD!!

Just a point the this video was actually had ablism in it because to did not address disability that are not physical or medical.

Are you and PhilosophyTube friends? yall have a similar vibe

What would be an important part in fighting ablism and disablism would be, in my opinion, if there were (more) subjects in school about it. ("more" because some schools actually try incorporating education about disabilities). As example, in most schools it is expected that you learn a second or third language. Why not teach sign-language? Or just as simple as what are examples of disabilities and let the students come up with ways to make our society more suited to enable people to participate normaly.
(Also I think sign language interpreteurs should be mandatory in institutions like the ER or the citizen's office.)
(I am not disabled, by the way, but as a training doctor (is that the right word?) I encounter people with disabilities with some regularity and am very frustrated with some barriers I´ve encountered, like communication with deaf people. It would make everyones life easier to reduce barriers.)

my mother once told me, point blank, that "before me and (father) had kids, we agreed that if (child) had a disability, we'd give them up for adoption" LIKE WHAT
i understand sometimes not having enough money to care for someone with a disability, but that's not the case here

I'd like to know more about the 700 deaths caused by disabiism. You kinda just glossed over it and I feel like it's worth elaboration.

Happy disability pride month~

Very well put. I wonder where you would place the latest "in description" of "differently abled." To me, it seems inadequate, and almost dismissive. Everyone is "differently abled" for we all have strengths and weaknesses in various areas. I could consider myself disabled by some criteria because I wear glasses and have 2 artificial knees. But I think that would be wrong, because The knees allow me to walk pain free again, and with the glasses, I can read--which is a passion of mine. So if I'm having a bad day and I don't feel up to walking across the whole parking lot (especially if it's hot--I AM, after all, 75), then I "sometimes" park in the blue spots, as I do have the requisite plates leftover from my late husband who was a heart failure patient. But most of the time, since recovering from my knee surgery, I park in regular spaces. Heck--maybe being old is a disability in itself. LOL Yeah, I have some arthritis, but it isn't crippling, so I feel it would be cheating and taking unfair advantage to put the "disabled" label on myself.
I admire your efforts in education people. You are obviously very well educated, and a good person.

I know alot of Abliesm and disablieism others who are not 🚫 of nasty derogatory remarks about me Lynn Deatherage who has been bullied all my life by a major bunch of poor me jokes about there dumbass groups of some African Americans people who are very racists against me Lynn and others disabled people like myself due to there irresponsible parents fault for lying about us disabled people who are very capable of living on their own life in apts. There mad because they are capable of full time jobs and careers and they lied about whites people refused 🤬🤬🤯 to hired them, they are high school education programs dropped out of highschool and due criminal actions and behaviors. Gang members groups can be friendly to you like i met one in the er in hospitals hcmc in 2002. When i sprain my knee. And he had a serious knee infection in his knee. But others who claims i know officer Mars in 2004 19 years ago. Due to gang activity and some how got himself shot. His mom told Andy Brown jr to shoot lynn for knowing officer Mars which i don't know him. Was shot in the butt that broken my back vertebrae fractured and sacrum and tailbone fx and slipped disks. Took 10months long. You killed a new high school education at Harding Sr highschool in the Eastside area of st.paul.

I'm sorry, but what was that video of yours called "Why are so many disabled people so gay"???. That's just insulting and totally belittling, and I have disability and am NOT gay at all. Surely, you would've never said the same abt. any non-disabled groups of people.

Another thing that happens (and happened to me) is seeing people/kids with hidden disabilities struggling. things like Autism, adhd, learning disabilities. Who arent diagnosed, and letting them down and struggle. Instead of thinking, oh wow. They're really struggling. We could ask and see if something is going on.

Oorrrr we could just call them lazy their whole lives and give them lifelong problems with self worth. I wasnt diagnosed until thr age of 26. Adhd, asd, dyslexia and dyscalculia. And all of a sudden, my issues in school made so much more sense. I didnt really have friends, I struggled with classwork and homework. To the point where I had to be dropped out of geometry with a 45. And instead of being like, wow. This girl has a 45 in this class. Maybe they need help and possibly assesment. I was just given a study period and told to use the time to work harder.
(My amazing dad did what he could to help. But he was a single parent and rwally could only do so much)

Word Speak, Orwell would be proud.

Is there still a need for the word ableism if we switch to saying disableism?

Jessica, I have a question that I find for myself to be very important. I consider myself "disabled" because there are things that I am "not able" to do, such stand too quickly, or lift heavy objects, etc. Is this wrong? Have I misunderstood this? I've always preferred using this label because I want to teach my students that being disabled does not affect you overall, it just means there are things you can't do, and you must find ways to overcome those areas (for example, some days I need a wheelchair to move; that just means that I found a tool to overcome my struggle in that area). I am just listening to you and wondering if I've thought about it all wrong this whole time.

For context, I was raised by a disabled woman who chose the "my disability doesn't define me path" in the sense of actively ignoring her doctors' advice and just stubborning her way through her disability, so I've never had a healthy mental role model to learn from.

at first glance i thought Disable-ism is the discrimination against Able-body people, which I have seen in become more and more accepted in our society which makes me think that Disabled people are being used more then being helped by the groups that say they are helping

the word disableism is more than just a single powerful word on its own, but it also further empowers & defines the term ableism through the dichotomy it creates. it allows people to admit their ableist tendencies without inherently calling them disableist

And then there's me who only gets dressed every other day - into sweat pants, or new pjs. I feel so I adequate ATM.
I am envious of your style and motivation, thank you for sharing your journey 🌹

Is it disablism to be called argumentativ when all you did is ask for clarifications and a way to privatly communicate your acommadation needs? Cause yeah that happened and it's realy weard to be treated like a noughty child by a grownup when your of age. Would actually appreciate kind responses cause boooy am I triggered and questioning my reality right now

I have autism and I can do just as well as everyone else

Someone explain why this is 4 results down when I search
"jessica kellgren-fozard disablism"

If I experience or hear about another manager taking down reminder notes because they're "unprofessional" istf