Education
Disability
A person with a disability is someone who:
- has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
- has a history or record of such an impairment (such as cancer that is in remission), or
- is perceived by others as having such an impairment (such as a person who has scars from a severe burn).
Ableism
A system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. This systemic oppression that leads to people and society determining people's value based on their culture, age, language, appearance, religion, birth or living place, "health/wellness", and/or their ability to satisfactorily re/produce, "excel" and "behave." You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism.
Ability-based Privilege
A set of unearned privileges held by people without disabilities.
Intersectionality
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" to describe how multiple forms of discrimination, such as race and gender, can compound each other, creating unique and distinct forms of disadvantage. It's a framework for understanding how different social categories, like race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, interact and create complex systems of power and oppression.