What’s New: Most Disability Professionals are Ableist

Emerging trends in current research suggests that prejudice and discrimination (ableism) towards disability is more prevalent among professionals who interact with people with a disability than most of us realize or want to believe.

Carli Friedman Director of Research at the Council on Quality and Leadership conducted a study to examine disability professionals’ conscious and unconscious disability attitudes. One of the key research findings was that of the disability professionals (417) who participated in the study “most scored as symbolic ableists (37.8%), with high levels of explicit and implicit ableism”. 

When the conscious and unconscious bias of professionals who connect and/or provide disability services/supports is rooted in ableism then there are negative consequences for people with disabilities.

In my lived experience as a person with a disability, some of the professionals that I deal with would have great difficulty believing that their language and actions reflect an ableist attitude. If we are truly committed to eliminating ableism, then open and honest dialogue between disability related professionals and people with disabilities needs to be championed. 

The article titled Most Disability Professionals are Ableist is a must read for any professional and organization that interacts with people with a disability. 

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