Ableism refers to the unequal treatment of people based on abilities. Depending on what someone looks like and what gender the person has, where they come from, whether they are poor or wealthy, disabled or non-disabled, someone is considered able or unable (in a certain situation or generally). Disability activists, their allies and scholars have, under the term ableism, criticized these notions of normal, able bodies and the discrimination against disabled people that they lead to. At the same time, feminist scholars from the field of Disability Studies, a discipline for the critical study of disability, have long emphasized that a binary (two-part) distinction between disabled and nondisabled/able-bodied is artificial. Ableism basically affects everyone whose body or lifestyle deviates from the norm of ability and productivity. Laws and institutions (e.g. in the education system or the welfare system) create ableism by differentiating between able and unable or eligible and ineligible people, so not everyone has the same access to education or social services.

Through our collaboration in the first year of the research project, we have developed a working definition of ableism that brings our diverse perspectives together. Defining ableism is an ongoing process, hence working definition. Outlining our understanding of ableism in the context of our collaboration is beneficial for our forthcoming analysis of different sources of ableism in academia and activism.

Our current understanding of ableism (as of October 2024) includes:

Ableism as

• part of larger structure/ideology/system/set of practices and institutions
• discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes and oppression of disabled people
• related to disablism
• hierarchisation and judgement
• intersectional/intersecting with other discrimination
• exclusion and othering
• invisible, unnamed, something people are unaware of
• internalised – making us doubt our capacity
• affecting all people and all areas of life
• related to capitalism and expectations of productivity and beauty
• presumption of able-bodiedness
• systemic and micro discrimination on the basis of ability
• …

To be continued, revised and challenged…

 An updated understanding (April 2026) of ableism based on our forthcoming research is:

• Ableism is deeply intersectional because there is no intersection of life without disabled people. We don't have to look hard for intersectionality because it's everywhere; we cannot name a single community anywhere on this planet without disability. It just does not exist. One of the important things that thinking about ableism teaches us is about the unnamed and unquestioned imagery, for example the ideal of productivity and independence and the effects that it has on differently marginalised and privileged people.
• Ableism is challenged through disability joy, disability leadership, radical self-love, and positive representation as well as through disability rage. We fight against and resist ableism through community, both across different disabilities and different marginalised groups. While we want to highlight the adverse and detrimental impacts of intersectional oppression, we also emphasise the power and the strength rooted in intersectionality as a social movement and in intersectional identities. Disability as experiential background is not limited to discrimination – it comes with joy, growth and various skills and abilities.
• With understanding ableism comes responsibility to dismantle it and become an ally to disabled people. Ableism does howewer not only exist in the lives of disabled people, in its intersectionality with other forms of oppression it is undeniable and affects the way society is shaped as a whole. Becoming aware is not enough, if we want to honour the political social movement aspects that come with an intersectional approach to ableism we must aim at structural change, too.
• The concept of ableism helps to name the oppression produced within and through academic structures and knowledge production as well. Part of challenging the ableist logics of academia (and the limitations that such criticism from a position within academic research necessarily has) is the sharing of our findings beyond these boundaries, with a broader audience and diverse communities. We continue to ask ourselves how our research contributes to valuing community-led research and to embracing the leadership of marginalised people.