Ableism is discrimination or prejudice against disabled people. It includes attitudes, systems, and everyday practices that assume non-disabled ways of living, communicating, or moving through the world are normal or superior. It can show up in overt exclusion, but also in subtle assumptions about what people “should” be able to do, how they “should” behave, or what a “good life” looks like.
A brief history
The term ableism emerged within disability rights activism in the 1970s–1980s, alongside movements challenging racism, sexism, and homophobia. Activists used it to name the systemic nature of discrimination faced by disabled people — shifting focus away from individual impairments to the social, cultural, and political barriers that disable people.
This perspective helped shape what became known as the social model of disability, reframing disability not as a personal tragedy but as a form of inequality created by inaccessible environments and exclusionary attitudes.