A system that places value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, intelligence, excellence and productivity. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in anti-Blackness, eugenics, colonialism, and capitalism. This form of systemic oppression leads to people and society determining who is valuable and worthy based on a person’s appearance and/or their ability to satisfactory [re]produce, excel and ‘behave.’ You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism. (link)

Access riders are documents used by disabled artists, speakers or activists to ensure that their access needs are being met when working with others. They may list any access needs or requirements for the cooperation. (link)

Access needs are those things that are needed in order for someone to fully participate in a space or activity, which can include wheelchair access, scent-free space, ASL interpretation, etc. In a disability justice context, access needs are seen as universal — every bodymind has needs, not just disabled people. (link)

Gender identity term for individuals who often conceptualize their gender as not aligning with any gender categories, having no other words that quite fit, and not caring about the project of gender altogether. Some people who are agender understand this identity to mean genderless. (link)

Autism influences how people experience and interact with the world. It is a lifelong neurodivergence and disability. Autistic people are different from each other, but for a diagnosis they must share differences from non-autistic people in how they think, feel and communicate.

Being autistic means you may feel things and react to them differently to non-autistic people. You may find socialising confusing or tiring, and you may become overwhelmed in loud or busy places. You may have intense interests, prefer order and routine, and use repeated movements or actions to calm yourself or express joy. You might mask your discomfort to fit in, which can lead to mental illness.

Many autistic people:

• See autism as a difference, not a disorder
  
  
• Agree more with a neurodiversity perspective than with the approach of the medical model
  
  
• Disagree with attempts to find a ‘cure’ for autism (they see being autistic as central to who they are […])
  
  
• Disagree with interventions (or ‘therapies’) designed to make autistic people 'less autistic’ […]
  
  
• Agree with interventions to support mental health and develop life skills that promote independence and/or autonomy […]
  
  
• Feel burdened by stigma and discrimination in society, including the pressure to mask their autistic characteristics in order to be accepted.
  
  
• In line with both the neurodiversity perspective and the social model of disability, many autistic people believe they are disabled by the barriers they face in society, not by being autistic.

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Term used when someone is diagnosed with both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Although autism and ADHD are separate conditions, research shows they share some common ground. Both are linked to differences in brain development and neurotransmitter function, like dopamine. Particularly in brain regions involved in planning, organisation, emotional regulation, and sensory processing. While each condition has its own set of traits, they can overlap in ways that make diagnosis tricky. (link)

The term awareness means consciousness or mindfulness. It refers to a protective concept intended to help people recognize structural discrimination and take a stand in support of the perspectives of those affected. (link)

In disability studies, the term bodymind refers to the intricate and often inseparable relationship between the body and the mind, and how these two units might act as one. Combination of 'body' and 'mind' in one term acknowledges that mental and physical processes not only affect each other but also give rise to each other — that is, because they tend to act as one, even though they are conventionally understood as two. (link)

System of printing for blind people, in which each letter is represented as a raised pattern that can be read by touching it with the fingers, or text written using this system. (link)

Care in the context of Disability Justice refers to a collective, self-determined, and power-critical practice of care that recognizes interdependence and is oriented toward the needs of disabled and chronically ill people. (link)

Health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects, requires ongoing medical attention or limits the scope of a person's daily activities or both. (link)

Copyleft is a general method for making a program (or other work) free (in the sense of freedom, not “zero price”), and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well. The simplest way to make a program free software is to put it in the public domain, uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their improvements, if they are so minded. (link)

Crip comes from "cripple". It's a word that people used to use to hurt disabled people. Now disabled people use "crip" to mean that they think of disability as something joyous and creative. "Crip" means that you don't want to fit into non-disabled people's worlds. (link)

Crip Authorship is an approach to authorship that centers disability as a method, rather than merely as content or a characteristic of the author. It encompasses creative and innovative practices that celebrate marginalized experiences and methods, challenge ableist norms, and reimagine accessibility and participation in knowledge production. (link)

In the context of Disability Justice, cure refers to a critically examined concept of healing that is often associated with ableist norms, pressures toward normalization, and the devaluation of disabled ways of living. (link)

Cross-disability (sensory, intellectual, mental health/psychiatric, neurodiversity, physical/mobility, learning, etc.) framework that values access, self-determination, and an expectation of difference. People are diverse and have differences in disability, identity, and culture. To be included and part of society is about being able to be our “whole self” (all of our identities together). Disability Justice includes space for self-care, reflection, and hard discussions.

10 Principles of Disability Justice:

• Intersectionality
• Leadership of those most impacted
• Anti-capitalist politic
• Commitment to cross-movement organizing
• Recognizing wholeness
• Sustainability
• Commitment to cross-disability solidarity
• Interdepence
• Collective access
• Collective liberation

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Fat(ness) is weighing more than is medically considered normal for a given height. Alternative for "obesity" or "overweight" that is often used as self-identification in the fat activism movement. Fatness can also be about identity, community and self acceptance. (link)

"Process of becoming well again, [...] or of making someone well again. (link)

But a cripped definition of healing would include anything that supports someone’s disabled body/mind. My cane; my friend’s garden bench chair they sit on while they weed; my heating pad and excellent ice packs; my friend’s sensory friendly hijab; the CRV my friend and his partner bought that can easily fit his wheelchair in the back; stim toys; my car with its disabled parking permit; the disabled parking spaces at the Grocery Outlet; the portable wheelchair at the protest; Zoom captions; the autistic Black, brown, Indigenous, Asian and mixed race group I hang out in online; and my close and extended disabled BIPoC friend family who are available to bitch and vent and commiserate and troubleshoot and doula each other: none of these are healing in the “cure” sense. But all of these things do a lot to ensure my or someone else’s chances of an excellent disabled life. (link)

Health justice is both a community-led movement for power building and transformational change and a community-oriented framework for health law scholarship. Health justice is distinguished by a distinctively social ethic of care that reframes the relationship between health care, public health, and the social determinants of health, and names subordination as the root cause of health inequities. (link)

An “invisible,” “non-visible,” “hidden,” “non-apparent,” or "unseen" disability is any physical, mental, or emotional impairment that goes largely unnoticed. An invisible disability can include, but is not limited to: cognitive impairment and brain injury; the autism spectrum; chronic illnesses like multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia; d/Deaf and/or hard of hearing; blindness and/or low vision; anxiety, depression, PTSD, and many more. (link)

Region of NE Europe comprising areas of both Finland and Russia. Following the Russo-Finnish War (1939–1940) a large part of what had been Finnish Karelia was annexed by the former Soviet Union; together with the part of Karelia which already belonged to Russia at that time, it corresponds roughly to the modern Karelian Republic in Russia. (link)

Products that have a medical purpose and are intended by the manufacturer for use in humans. In contrast to medicinal products that act pharmacologically, immunologically, or metabolically, the main intended purpose of medical devices is primarily achieved by physical means. (link)

Medical Hacking refers to the practices in which disabled people actively modify, repurpose, or create medical technologies and material environments to better suit their needs, rather than passively relying on standardized medical devices or clinical solutions. These practices challenge ableist norms of innovation, productivity, and passive consumption by centering lived experience, collective knowledge, and disability-led creativity. (link)

The network of corporations which supply health care services and products for a profit and at the expense of promoting care and wellness. (link)

Neurodiversity is the idea that all brains and connected bodyminds are diverse in how they work - no two brains or nervous systems are the same, and all types of thinking should be regarded as naturally occurring variation. Indeed, society needs different ways of thinking to solve complex problems. Neurodivergence is a term (named by multiply neurodivergent blogger and activist Kassianne Sibley) when some brains and bodyminds are pathologized and discriminated against. These terms come from autistic communities, who have welcomed folks with other marginalized brain/bodyminds to use them, including but not limited to people with cognitive, brain injury, epilepsy, learning and mental health disabilities. (link)

One speaks of othering when one group or person distinguishes themselves from another group by describing the non-own group as different and foreign. This usually takes place within a power imbalance: those who are described as “other” are affected by discrimination and therefore have little opportunity to defend themselves against these ascriptions. (link)

Communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information. (link)

QTIBIPoC stands for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color. QTBIPoC was developed as a way for folks to highlight the specific needs for BIPoC folks within the LGBTQIA+ community. QTBIPoC folks must navigate the effects of both racism and anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination. (link)

Umbrella term that is commonly used to refer to or describe people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Further, “queer” is also used to refer to approaches that oppose heteronormative ways of thinking and being. Historically used in a pejorative sense, the term ‘queer’ has been reclaimed by LGBTQIA+ activists to explain sexual orientation and identity. Queer theorists appreciate that the term invokes the ongoing struggle and evolution of gender and sex categories. (link)

Safer spaces are intended to be places where marginalized communities can gather and communicate shared experiences, free of bias, conflict, or harm perpetrated by members of a dominant group. Recognizing that there is no such thing as a perfectly safe space for marginalized people under the current systems of our society, the term “safer” indicates the goal of temporary relief, as well as acknowledging the fact that harm can be reproduced even within marginalized communities. (link)