Even professionals may be deceiving themselves and may not be in touch with their prejudices regarding the disabled.

With around 25% of the adult population being disabled, the US is home to one of the biggest minority groups. Physical, cognitive, and sensory impairments are only a few examples of the widely acknowledged types of impairments.

Anyone with a disability goes through specific stages of disability identity formation identified by researchers as acceptance, relationship, adoption, and involvement. During this process, those with disabilities encounter ableist interactions in the world, which include systemic forms of ableism, such as inaccessible buildings, and interpersonal forms, including disability-related slurs.

Let me give you an example of something I recently witnessed. Members of a disability group were going to have a major event for the public. Despite most group members having physical disabilities, no special parking was provided. A local official said, "Someone can drop you off near the front door, and then they can go and park." They seemed completely unaware that what they were asking was that the disabled person wait alone for the driver to go park the car and then come back to them. It was one instance of insensitivity on the part of this individual, but also on the part of town officials.

Healthcare professionals and members of disability support groups, as noted in my example, often engage in unconscious discrimination, including microaggressions, despite believing they are knowledgeable and empathetic. Unfortunately, research has not proven that to be so, and this has been substantiated by studies utilizing a specific research scale, The Symbolic Ableism Scale.

How we manifest our differences can be overt or covert, and it targets people’s physical, emotional, and mental differences from the social norm. People with these differences are considered a burden, objects of pity, or problems to society. Some individuals are viewed as incapable of achieving any independence and experience microaggression.

These seemingly unnoticed forms of aggression can be seen in several ways. In general, an ableist microaggression occurs when someone praises a disabled person for being inspirational simply for participating in everyday activities, such as attending school. A person who does not have a disability who commits an ableist microinsult would say something like, “She’s “too attractive” to be crippled, or when they discount a disabled person’s encounter with ableism as “not that horrible.” Does discrimination always have to be "horrible" to be unacceptable?

We appear to be partially addressing this issue today, as we start to recognize the unique characteristics of individuals with neurodivergent disorders. Similarly, when a non-disabled person speaks slowly to a handicapped person, they may engage in ableist microaggressions, implying that the disabled person lacks the cognitive ability to understand what they are saying.

As noted in a professional paper, “Ableism cannot be eradicated until disability professionals look inward and rid themselves of negative attitudes; until that occurs, disability professionals will continue to do a disservice to the very people they have dedicated their careers to — disabled people.”

Although most healthcare providers claimed they had no prejudice against people with disabilities, a survey of 25,000 revealed that many of them secretly preferred to work with non-disabled patients. While it’s concerning that studies show healthcare providers to be biased, it’s also possible that the professionals surveyed did not focus on disability or have direct patient contact with those who are disabled. That, of course, is a sampling problem that should've been identified even before the research was begun.

Therein lies one of the problems with these studies. Many of these disability professionals may have already developed biases, have family members with disabilities, and have a belief system that is counter to the one needed for their work. Of course, this belief system lies outside their state of awareness until they face it via the results of a validated survey questionnaire.

In contrast, disability specialists play an important role in the creation and institutionalization of information about disability, have direct control over impaired individuals, and can operate as gatekeepers. They can also have a tremendous impact on the lives of disabled people. Forty-five percent of disability advocates secretly preferred non-disabled individuals.

The challenges faced by disabled individuals are compounded by the medical model adhered to by most disability-related occupations, which pathologizes disability and views it as abnormal, fundamentally flawed, and in need of correction. If you are perceived as flawed and abnormal, how can you possibly, at the same time, have an inherent belief that you are not flawed but normal in a different way? This would seem to be partially addressed today, as we begin to appreciate the differences in those with neurodivergent disorders. Some of these individuals in the computer field (such as Bill Gates) have extraordinary abilities in concentration, information retention, and processing new technologies. What was once seen as a disability may be an advantage.

How often have you found yourself being guilty of some form of ableism and blind to your microaggressions? Most of us will not have an opportunity to take that specialized scale and come in contact with our unconscious beliefs. However, we can make a concerted daily effort to begin to realize that we do have these biases and to directly address them in our everyday lives.