"Is ableism an actual thing?"
Many of you don’t seem to believe that it exists so here are a few statistics and please keep in mind this is a very short list and doesn’t get into anything even as “trivial” as representation in the media or as specific as how high these numbers go when you include intersections of race and sexuality and anything besides binary gender
Being disabled in public was illegal in the United States until the mid-1970s (x)
Segregation of the disabled still exists; from designated parking spaces to refusal of hiring disabled people in visible jobs to denial of basic education (x)
Disabled people are still legally allowed to be paid slave wages, as little as $0.22 an hour (x)
To receive disability benefits, which can be around $700 a month, a United States resident can be required to not have any savings, to own any property, to never inherit money or property, to never have more than $2,000 in their checking account, to never work for anything above the aforementioned slave wages, as well as many other restrictions (x)
Disabled people, even simply the seeing or hearing impaired, often have their children taken away from them by social services for no reason (x)
Disabled women are twice as likely to victims of domestic violence as abled women (x)
Disabled women are less likely to seek help for their abuse, and oftentimes the little help the receive is not appropriate (x)
Disabled women are more likely to experience abuse over a longer period of time and suffer more severe injuries as a result (x)
Reports of sexual violence against disabled women range between 51% and 79% (x)
Forced sterilization was legal in the United States until 2014 and was most often performed on the disabled and/or women of color (x)
85% of disabled women have experienced domestic violence (x)
80% of women with intellectual disabilities have been sexually assaulted, and 50% of those women had been assaulted more than 10 times. (x)
Half of the people murdered by police officers are disabled (x)
Family members of disabled individuals are not only legally allowed to “put down” their disabled family member but they are often praised in the community and media as heroes for it (x)
EDIT: Another great example of ableism: the fact that most of the comments on this post are about how it’s ridiculous I included handicap parking under an example of segregation
So let me explain once again,
That was an example of how segregation can range from understandable to the inhumane
Not to say that things like segregated parking doesn’t have its disadvantages. Disabled people are very often violently and sexually accosted in the spaces because would be abusers know exactly where to find us and can very discreetly follow us or force themselves into our cars. I don’t know that anyone’s done statistics on it but I also don’t know if anyone who is disabled who hasn’t been assaulted in handicap parking.
These spaces are also huge issues of contempt able-bodied people have against the disabled. You are probably more familiar with the story of Rosa Parks being asked to leave her seat because a more privileged (white) person wanted her seat and therefore she was expected to give it to them. This is how segregation works. Handicap parking is often used by able-bodied people and although this is illegal, when a disabled person notifies security they are often met with hostility and the chances of it ending up in assault either by the security themselves or the able-bodied person who parked goes up exponentially so it’s often not an option to do anything but quietly leave.
Very rarely people do get ticketed for parking illegally in the spaces but it’s usually only ever done when officers are trying to meet a quota of fines given out and the backlash is never aimed at the police, it’s aimed at the disabled community. A few years ago in central California where I live the police “cracked down” on people illegally using the segregated parking spots and the general statistics for disabled people being assaulted skyrocketed.
Not only is there bigotry but people just don’t understand disability to the point where they see sign language as violent gang signs, accessibles as weapons, trouble with walking means you’re drunk, tics and other perceived “weird” movements or sounds are scary. Assault is unavoidable but the biggest issue is that people usually call 911 with good intentions, thinking the person needs help but when you call 911 the police come. 50% of all the murders committed by police each year in America are of disabled people. A huge portion of BLM victims are disabled.
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