Internalised Ableism / Daša Novysedláková Ableism is a belief system which equates able-bodiedness to normalcy, and deems disability as innately negative, undesirable, and requiring amelioration (Campbell, 2009). As able-bodiedness is presumed in social and institutional practices and beliefs, this aids the construction of disability itself (Chouinard, 1997). Persons with disabilities disclose that while their disability presents certain discomfort, the majority of the impairment is external, induced through imposed beliefs (Campbell, 2009). According to Campbell (2009), the absence of collective identity among disabled people, constant exposure to microaggressions on institutional, policy and social level, as well as the pressure to emulate the norm in disability renunciation and attempts to reach able-bodiedness due to the fundamentally flawed capitalism-inspired productivity-centred framework of standards used to judge the worth of individuals, lead to the internalisation of ableism. Even though the internalisation of ableism can be unconscious, it has tangible inter- and intra-personal implications for the individual. Internalised ableism also skews the narrative of the role of disability in our lives, and the expectations we set for ourselves (Jóhannsdóttir et al., 2022). The social narrative of disability often centres around the need to overcome it (Campbell, 2009). Subsequently, strategies available to assist with working with systems incompatible with a particular disability are used as tools to emulate that the disability no longer exists. If this goal is achieved, the disabled individuals are frequently objectified to become the source of inspiration porn – portrayal of disability as a source of inspiration to able-bodied individuals (Grue, 2016).
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