Disability studies scholarship has largely been dominated by disabled white people, with the contributions of people of color often being overshadowed. The disability movement has historically been noninclusive, lacking perspectives from the intersections of diverse identities. Traditional disability rights activism has had various limitations, as it focused narrowly on monolithic concepts, missed opportunities to join other social justice movements, neglecting the power and privilege dynamics across identity domains, centered those with mobility impairments and readily apparent disabilities, and favored those able to engage in traditional protest and legal action. 

Limitations of the Disability Rights Movement

- Global movement that advocates for equal rights for individuals with disabilities.
- Has had success in changing laws and social attitudes towards those with disabilites.
- Has roots in the 1960s, and grew along with the Women's Rights Movements and Civil Rights Movement.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
- Disability Rights Movement
- Not Dead Yet

Important Movements/Organizations of Bioethics in Disability History

Language choices carry social, cognitive, and emotional weight. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (2005) explains how language affects perception, with social context and cognition influencing each other. This theoretical foundation is essential because the perception and attitudes toward disabled people are directly influenced by terminology, often through stigmatizing language and objectifying labels.

Summary of #SaytheWord: A Disability Culture Commentary on the Erasure of “Disability”

The Hastings Center Report, November- December 2005, Vol. 35, No. 6, Special Report: Improving End of Life Care: Why Has it Been so Difficult? (November- December 2005), pp. S31- S36

Recognizing Death while Affirming Life (The Hastings Center)

Disability Rights Movement

- Disability Rights Organization that opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia for the disabled.
- Ensuring that the witholding of life-sustaining treatment is truly voluntary. and not being enforced my medical provider.

Not Dead Yet

- Organization that is odedicated to protecting the choice for the disabled to live in homes rather than nursing homes.
- Increasing accesibility for the disabled in public spaces.
- Critiquing the industrial realities that results in discrimination towards those with disabilities.

Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today

At the 2018 American Psychological Association (APA) Annual National Convention, the Committee on Disability in Psychology (CDIP) renamed the “Disability Resource Room” to the “Multi-Abled Resource Room” to remove the word “disability”.  The CDIP’s rationale for this decision was to address underutilization of the room, be inclusive toward users who don’t identify as disabled, and prevent users from being “outed” as disabled or discriminated against. Many psychologists engaged in tremendous debate and discourse over this action. While APA leadership later indicated the name would be changed back to include “disability,” this event is notable in recognizing the complexity of language in disability communities.

The 2018 American Psychological Association (APA) Annual National Convention

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

The #SaytheWord movement reveals a critical paradox in well-meaning efforts to support marginalized communities: sometimes our attempts to be sensitive actually perpetuate harm. When we avoid saying "disability," we inadvertently participate in erasure at the exact moment when visibility is most crucial for political survival. This creates a unique challenge for psychology as a field–unlike other forms of diversity that psychology has embraced, disability exists at the intersection of identity and lived experience in ways that make it simultaneously medical, social, and political. The field's hesitation to fully engage with disability as a cultural identity may stem from its own clinical roots—viewing disability through a deficit lens rather than recognizing it as a legitimate form of human diversity. For psychology to truly advance social justice, it must move beyond protecting people from their own identities and instead focus on protecting their right to those identities.

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