Understanding Ableism

I think that the word disability is said and thrown around often in our society without much thought to exactly what it means. I know that for me personally, it wasn't until a certain point in my life that I began to have an understanding what disability meant. For this post I am going to explain what disability and ableism mean.


The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) considers a person disabled if she or he has a significant impairment that interferes with a major life function, such as walking, seeing, hearing, learning, speaking, breathing, care of one's self, sitting, standing, or lifting. The ADA covers both physical and mental impairments, such as mental retardation, hearing impairments, visual impairments, speech or language impairments, emotional disabilities, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, depression, mental illness (such as bipolar or schizophrenia), and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer,epilepsy, multiple disabilities. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1999 and Castaneda, Hopkins, and Peters, 2010).


Think about that, that list includes a lot of people in America and worldwide. And to be honest, quite possibly could include you in some way, or someone very close to you. It is important to understand the broadness of the word disability and the vast amount of people it includes. An interesting statistic I read in my textbook was that "well over 74% of all Americans live with invisible disabilities" (The Invisible Disabilities Advocate, 1997). Other interesting stats I looked up were:

• Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Americans with disabilities increased 25 percent, outpacing any other subgroup of the U.S. population.
• Disability rates vary geographically, as well (source: U.S. Census 2000):
• Nearly 40 percent of persons reporting a disability live in the South - twice the 20 percent of each of the other three geographic areas. Persons living in Alaska, Utah and Minnesota each reported the lowest rates of disability, about 15 percent. Persons living in West Virginia reported the highest rate of disability, at 24.4 percent, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi, each over 23 percent.
• Of the 49.7 million non-institutionalized individuals aged five and older who reported having a disability in the U.S. 2000 Census (source: U.S. Census 2000)
• 9.3 million reported having a sensory disability involving sight or hearing.
• 21.2 million reported having a disability that limits their ability to engage in basic physical activity such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying.
• 12.4 million reported having a physical, mental or emotional condition that makes it difficult to learn, remember or concentrate.
• 6.8 million reported a physical, mental or emotional condition that makes it difficult to dress, bathe or get around inside the home.
• 18.2 million reported their disability makes it difficult to venture outside the home.

• Noninstitutionalized adults 18 years and older (source: CDC website)

  • Number of adults with hearing trouble: 37.1 million
  • Percent of adults with hearing trouble: 16.2%
  • Number of adults with vision trouble: 21.5 million
  • Percent of adults with vision trouble: 9.4%
  • Number of adults unable (or very difficult) to walk a quarter mile: 16.7 million
  • Percent of adults unable (or very difficult) to walk a quarter mile: 7.3%
  • Number of adults with any physical functioning difficulty: 35.8 million
  • Percent of adults with any physical functioning difficulty:  15.6%

As you can see, this word disability includes a lot of people. More people than I ever realized that's for sure!
I was fortunate to have been exposed to some of the most sweet and caring people I have ever met from a very young age of about 5. These people I am referring to are all people with disabilities, and most of them are severe. My aunt has worked at a place called Midwest Special Services in St. Paul, Minnesota for 40 years. This is a place where the clients range in disability from down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, visually impaired, hearing impaired, as well as senior adults with disabilities. I would go and visit my aunt with my brother and spend time with the clients. To be honest, the first couple of years that I went, I would be uncomfortable and some of the clients particularly made me scared. They had unpredictable movements and would often times scream, and have more spastic movements which is something that as a 5 year old I had never experienced before. I would play very simple games with them, color, play with the ladies hair, and do a variety of activities. I grew to have personal relationships with several of the clients and looked forward to going back to visit. As time as gone on, many of the original clients that I met have passed away or moved permanently into a group home. But, every time I go up to Minnesota to see family I always make a stop at Midwest. There is something about seeing these precious clients and getting to spend just a short while with them that brings me joy and puts my own life into a different perspective.

In the summer of 2008, my church went on a mission trip Empire, Colorado to the Rocky Mountain Village Easter Seals Camp. Let me tell you, that was one of the most exhausting and memorable summers I have ever had!!! I often find myself remembering my time there and day dreaming about it. For the trip we were able to be camp counselors along side the residential summer counselors and got to work with kids from the age of around 16 and younger. We were assigned cabins and spent all day with our campers doing a range of awesome activities and adventures like swimming, fishing, overnight camping, outdoor cooking, travel camp, day trips, arts & crafts, sports and recreation, hiking, dances, music & drama, horse-back riding, and riding the zip-line. I would help with things like feeding the campers, changing them, spend quite time with them, give piggy back rides, and do anything and everything that they want to do. I had some of the kids tell me that they lived for the sole experience of coming to this camp. And when I say live, I literally mean LIVE for this camp. They spend a majority of their lives not being accepted for who they are, not having friends, and live being extremely limited by the things they are not able to do. This summer experience at Easter Seals was life changing, and I forever think about going back and being a counselor. Those kids and campers are some of the most fearless, boldest, happy, energetic kids I have had the opportunity to meet and I love them so much. 

Please take a look at this video and see a glimpse of what I was lucky enough to experience. 

I encourage you, to think about your interpretation of disabled and the people in your life who have a disability. I hope you love and respect them no less than you do someone who is fully able. 

Thanks for reading! Happy thoughts :)