It is important to note that crip, similar to the term queer which was theorized to operate in a similar way to disrupt cis-hetero normativity, is based on the reclamation of a derogatory term. In this case, the term crip is a reclamation of the terms crip and cripple which have historically been used as derogatory terms to describe people with disabilities. 

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Price uses the term crip as defined in her work "The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain" to describe someone who engages in the act of cripping which is to use the disruptive potential of disability to call into question normative spaces, positionalities, and interactions. 

Crip

Language used to describe diverse communities and the words selected by different cultures to describe themselves are constantly evolving, along with attitudes of/toward these groups. For example, negative terms are sometimes reclaimed and repurposed as insider slang or terms of endearment (e.g. the use of the n-slur among Black people). Terminology can also evolve for the purposes of greater inclusivity, (e.g. LGBT developed to LGBTQQIA, and the reclamation of “queer”). Similar reclamation has occurred in the disability community with terms like “gimp” and “cripple” (shortened to “crip”). However, reclamation efforts are not universal and not free of controversy.

Language Evolution and Reclamation

A subsection of disability studies theory, whose name was inspired by queer theory, that emphasizes creating a theoretical approach to disability that looks at how disability functions as an ideology, a paradigm, an epistemology, and a system of oppression in addition to an identity experience.

Crip Theory 

Crip and Reclamation of Language

Whereas disability can be viewed as an identity group formed out of political definitions in the United States with people of various different lived and embodied experiences getting rights under the same law and protected class, crip does not aim to shore up disability rights but to disrupt the category of "ability" and the ideas based on that category.

Difference between Crip and Disability

The term psychocrip seems to have originated with Ephemeral Theory Collective member James Overboe who collaborated with Richard Ingram on a series of workshops entitled PsychoCrips the point of the workshop was to draw attention to the commonalities in experiences between those who have experienced disabling effects of psychiatric treatment and those who have experienced the traumatizing effects of medicalizing disability. The term was turned into an identity term - similar to the reclaiming of crip - by Erick Fabris who used the term to reclaim crip for individuals historically described by the word crip but who also identify with identities of madness and psychiatric survivorship. 

Psychocrip

The medical model promotes the image of people with disabilities as needing health care or as “sick”. While many people with disabilities do have a predisposition for certain medical conditions, this does not mean they are always sick. Many people with the philosophy of the medical model underestimate the human capacity to learn about the complexities of the human body, and thus to make safe decisions about one’s disability.


Medical model of demeaning disability-friendly terminology

This law changed the language that referred to people with disabilities in multiple pieces of federal legislation to reflect more inclusive terminology. 

Rosas Law (Pub. L. 111-256)

Ableism permeates common American vernacular. Sensory disability references, such as “are you deaf?” are often used as insults or expressions of exasperation. The word “blind” is often used interchangeably with obliviousness, and “deaf” is often used for unawareness. Popular metaphors like “the blind leading the blind” and “turn a blind eye” refer to ignorant and foolish behavior at the expense of blind people. Another example is the term “lame,” used routinely for uninteresting or disappointing things, with many users unaware of its origins in mobility impairment.

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