ableism
noun

- discrimination in favour of non-disabled people

- a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities.

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WORD ORIGIN

“Ableism” was coined following the model of other discrimination terms like "racism" (1930s) and "sexism" (1960s). It follows the same grammatical structure: [characteristic] + [-ism] = [discrimination based on that characteristic].

The term appears to have emerged in the disability rights movement of the early 1980s, to name a previously unnamed form of discrimination. Before this term existed, disability discrimination was often seen as individual misfortune rather than systemic prejudice.

Unlike older discrimination terms, "ableism" was consciously crafted by activists rather than emerging organically in common usage. This deliberate coinage reflects the modern civil rights movement's understanding that naming oppression is the first step toward addressing it.

The word weaponizes the supposedly positive term "able" to expose how society privileges certain bodies and minds over others.

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BEYOND LIMITS

Ableism tells us what people can’t do — but the Paralympic Games prove what humanity can. Each athlete who enters the stadium defies the quiet prejudice that ability has only one form. Swimmer Jessica Long, born without legs, transforms the water into her arena of triumph. Jonnie Peacock, running on a carbon-fiber blade, merges technology with talent. And Tatyana McFadden, a wheelchair racer and multiple medalist, shows that speed begins in courage, not in limbs.

Jessica Long encapsulated a deep truth about transcending human limitations:

"I was told I would never walk. I chose to swim instead."

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SYNONYMS

ability prejudice, ability privilege, ABLEISM, advantagism, bias against disability, bodily/competence discrimination, capability chauvinism (gatekeeping, prejudice, supremacy), capacity discrimination, cognitive chauvinism, discrimination against disability, disability bias (discrimination, exclusion, injustice, oppression, stereotyping, stigma), exclusionary practice, functional discrimination, handicapism, health favoritism, impairment bias (stigma), intolerance of disability, medical discrimination, physical favoritism (superiority), skill superiority, social exclusion, special needs stigma, talent supremacy, wellness privilege

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SMUGGLE
 OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“The creation of the word ABLEISM was a necessary first step along the path to eliminate it.”

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THANKS to Fay for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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P L E A S E   S U P P O R T   O W A D