Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
27 results found in disability culture.
- Access Intimacy
- A concept coined by disability justice activist Mia Mingus describing the elusive, deeply felt connection that occurs when someone else genuinely understands and responds to your access needs. Access …
- Accessibility Dongle (Disability Dongle)
- A well-intentioned but ultimately useless or impractical solution to an accessibility problem that disabled people never actually needed or asked for. Coined by Liz Jackson in 2019, the term critiques…
- Aesthetic Blindness
- Aesthetic blindness is a myth and misconception rooted in ableism that assumes blind people cannot perceive, appreciate, or create beauty because beauty is rendered solely through visual means. This a…
- Communities of Practice (CoP)
- Groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through regular interaction. In accessibility, communities of practice form around shared experience…
- Crip Epistemology (Cripistemology)
- A framework for understanding how disability produces distinct forms of knowledge that challenge dominant, ableist ways of knowing. Rooted in crip theory and disability studies, crip epistemologies re…
- Crip Time
- A concept from disability studies and culture that recognizes disabled people often operate on different timescales than those imposed by ableist societal norms. Crip time encompasses the need for mor…
- Cultural Appropriation (Cultural Misappropriation)
- The adoption or use of elements from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture without proper understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for their original meaning and significance. In disabi…
- Cure Narrative (Cure Rhetoric, Fix-It Mentality)
- A dominant cultural narrative that frames disability as a problem to be eliminated, cured, or overcome through medical intervention, technology, or personal determination. Cure narratives position the…
- Deaf Community (Deaf World, Signing Community)
- A cultural and linguistic community of people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and who share a common language (typically a sign language), cultural values, traditions, and social norms. The Deaf commu…
- Deaf Culture (Deaf Community Culture)
- The shared cultural identity, values, social norms, language, art, literature, and history of Deaf people who communicate primarily through sign language. Deaf culture (with a capital "D") views deafn…
- Disability Aesthetics
- A discourse related to reclaiming the visibility of disability in mainstream art, particularly visual and performance arts, through the depiction of disabled bodies as both beautiful and inspiring. Un…
- Disability Art (Disability Arts)
- Artistic work created by disabled artists that is specifically informed by their experience of disability, often rooted in the social dynamics of identity, disability culture, and the struggle for dis…
- Disability Culture (Crip Culture)
- Disability culture encompasses the shared experiences, values, art, language, humor, and traditions that have developed among people with disabilities as a distinct social group. It includes disabilit…
- Disability Pride (Disability Identity Pride)
- The acknowledgment and embracing of disability as a valued part of personal identity rather than something to hide, overcome, or be ashamed of. Disability Pride is rooted in the social model of disabi…
- Disability Representation (Disability Portrayal, Disability Media Representation)
- How disabled people and disability are depicted, described, and constructed in media, marketing, technology, research, and public discourse. Disability representation encompasses visual imagery, langu…
- Disabled Joy (Disability Joy, Crip Joy)
- Disabled joy refers to the positive experiences, pleasures, and sources of happiness that arise from or are connected to living as a disabled person. This includes pride in disability identity, the ri…
- Embodied Critique (Embodied Feedback, Body-Based Critique)
- A method of expressing critical feedback through physical bodies and bodily actions rather than relying solely on spoken or written language. Embodied critique draws on disability cultures where commu…
- Identity-First Language (IFL)
- Language that places the disability or condition before the person (e.g., "autistic person," "deaf person," "disabled person"), in contrast to person-first language ("person with autism," "person with…
- Institutional Ableism (Systemic Ableism, Structural Ableism)
- Prejudice and discrimination against people with disabilities that is embedded in the policies, practices, norms, and culture of organizations and institutions, rather than manifesting solely through …
- Late Diagnosis (Adult Diagnosis, Delayed Diagnosis)
- Receiving a formal diagnosis of a condition significantly later than when symptoms first appeared, often in adulthood for conditions typically identified in childhood. Late diagnosis of ADHD and autis…