Ableism, the dis/ability binary and beyond

Ableism refers to the unequal treatment of people based on abilities. Depending on what someone looks like and what gender the person has, where they come from, whether they are poor or wealthy, disabled or non-disabled, someone is considered able or unable (in a certain situation or generally). Disability activists, their allies and scholars have, under the term ableism, criticized these notions of normal, able bodies and the discrimination against disabled people that they lead to. At the same time, feminist scholars from the field of Disability Studies, a discipline for the critical study of disability, have long emphasized that a binary (two-part) distinction between disabled and nondisabled/able-bodied is artificial. Ableism basically affects everyone whose body or lifestyle deviates from the norm of ability and productivity. Laws and institutions (e.g. in the education system or the welfare system) create ableism by differentiating between able and unable or eligible and ineligible people, so not everyone has the same access to education or social services. Together with feminist disability activists from different countries in the global north, this research project will examine how, by/for whom and for what purpose ableism has been discussed in scholarship and activism so far. The focus of this is how the interplay of (dis)ability, gender, social class, and race is considered in debates on ableism. Furthermore, it will be explored how the activists themselves critique ableism and notions of corporeal normality in their activism (including in their digital activism, for example on social media) and to what extent they thereby refer to various forms of disadvantage but also privilege that shape the effects of ableism. The `stories` told through their (digital) activism against ableism are collected, written down collaboratively and interconnected. Together, the effects of ableism, both in relation to disability and beyond, on other women from the activists` communities will then be examined in discussion groups. The aim of the research project is to collaboratively create a feminist intersectional approach to ableism and to explore how such an approach reveals notions of ability (or rather abledment) in different contexts.