Ableism: A Potent Force Impeding Full Citizenship?

Ableism – largely unseen and unquestioned – plays a significant role in the structure and functioning of society in Aotearoa New Zealand, as elsewhere. People whose bodies fit an ‘ablebodied’ norm are situated as ideal (and are thus privileged) while ‘disabled’ bodies are deemed deviant (and problematised and marginalised). This is true across not just education and employment pathways, but results in significant effects on participation parity across all life domains, denying many disabled people full citizenship, human rights and justice.

In Aotearoa New Zealand - despite decades of rights-based rhetoric - disabled people continue to be marginalised. A clear and critical focus is required to surface ableist attitudes and practices and avoid reproducing exclusionary ableist systems and structures. Our latest empirical research has focused on revealing ableist beliefs in the employment, health, leisure and culture sectors; provoking self-reflection and employing creative strategies to tackle ableism and help ensure a non-ableist future.

In this presentation, we discuss deep-seated ableist attitudes and practices revealed in research with participants from across all sectors and our creative dissemination of these findings to date.