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Showing posts from September, 2017

This is what institutionalised ableism looks like.

Nobody outside the disability sector ever talks about institutional ableism. Yes, we talk about the individual slights and hurts that people inflict upon us every day. The hurts and abuses and daily breaching of rights. But we do not talk about the more subtle ways that ableism is built into systems and institutions that are built for people who are like them, not us. We don't talk about the ways we are daily discriminated against by practices, economic and political structures, and when we do, nothing happens. When we do, people tell us that we are angry. Or bitter. Or both. This is what institutional ableism looks like. It looks like a person who won't give a disabled person a job because they might need too much time off work. It looks like the building of homes that are not accessible. It looks like social housing only being available to people who can navigate steps. It looks like a disabled woman being refused IVF on the basis that she probably couldn't