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Internalized Ableism
Chronic illness sharpened my understanding of ableism. But until recently, I didn’t know the degree to which I had internalized ableist narratives.
Last month, while watching to an IGTV interview between chronic illness advocates Karolina Chorvath and Nikita Chopra, I heard the term “internalized ableism” for probably only the second or third time in my life. I knew about ableism — discrimination against people living with disabilities — since I was a young adult, but it didn’t occur to me how and why it could become internalized.
When I was diagnosed with chronic illness, I fell through the rabbit-hole and was introduced to a whole new language and experience I previously had nothing more than an academic or political awareness of. But still, after my diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia, I had no understanding of how and why ableism can be internalized.
And I didn’t realize until recently the extent to which I have internalized ableist narratives.
Ableist narratives
The clearest definition I’ve seen of internalized ableism is from Ashley Harris Whaley, creator of the Disability Reframed account on Instagram. She writes: “Internalized Ableism refers to the phenomenon of disabled people believing prejudices about themselves that become internalized by daily living in an ableist society.”
