Don't Enable An Ableist:BADD 2008

Ableism hurts. It can be subtle, like when a customer behind me assumes because I'm in a wheelchair that I can't be in line by myself, or like a sledgehammer, when someone assaults you because you're paralyzed and can't fight back. It can result in discrimination in housing and employment. Ableist attitudes are behind the resistance to providing access to people with disabilities and other social changes that would result in fuller inclusion of us in society.

When some people do or say ableist things, there are those who enable them in various ways. Sometimes it's even the person with a disability, when we apologize to an ableist who treats us badly and insists on us backing down from our position. I have a term for it: enableists.

It can sound like this.

"You just refused to show me an apartment because I have a disability?"

"Absolutely. I don't need the hassle," says the ableist landlord, openly breaking the law.

Upon hearing this, a typical enableist will chime in with "Well, you can't expect Mr./Mrs Ableist to want a tenant with a disability. It does present problems" or "Maybe you should just look at another apartment " or if you point out that kind of discrimination is illegal, an enableist will say "You can't expect other people to know all about disability stuff." (Oh yeah, those silly anti-discrimination laws!)

Yes, enableists continue to enable some ableists to say they don't want to make an accommodation or serve a customer with a disability. And when the ableists offer an excuse, the enableist inevitably helps them come up with more. The enableist seems to jump into the fray to calm the ableist down. Yes, yes by all means, let's keep the status quo. Why should the ableist change, they ask the person with a disability?

Enabling an ableist is just as wrong as being an ableist. It encourages them. It not only makes excuses for them, but it gives them an out and solidifies their sense of entitlement, as if it's okay for them to discriminate against a whole group of people. Enabling ableists sends them a message that it's optional and up to them whether they deal with their ableist attitudes and ways - without facing consequences.

A sure sign that you're dealing with an enableist is that you are left feeling as if you've done something wrong after you've asserted your rights in a reasonable way. And yet, as the chorus of ableist-enableist-ableist-enableist goes on, our voices as people with disabilities seem to get lost in the fray. It's as if a sideshow is going on, completely tangential to the fact that we can't use a restroom, for example, that is All About the Ableist. Poor ableist, the enableist says, as we roll down three blocks in the wintry cold to use an accessible bathroom. This accommodation would cost so much. Why are you asking him/her to do that? Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Poor ableist, says the enableist, after he/she embarrasses us with an inappropriate ableist remark at a social function. Why did you have to point that out?

I guess the answer is: because those of us who do aren't enableists.

{written for Blogging Against Disablism Day 2008}