Disability justice is a

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

movement which focuses on examining

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

and

ableism Ableism (; also known as ablism, disablism (British English), anapirophobia, anapirism, and disability discrimination) is discrimination and social prejudice against physically or mentally disabled people. Ableism characterizes people as they a ...

as they relate to other forms of oppression and identity such as race, class and gender.

Background

It was developed in 2005 by the Disability Justice Collective, a group including Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, Stacey Milbern, Leroy F. Moore Jr., and Eli Clare. In disability justice, disability is not considered to be defined in "white terms, or male terms, or straight terms." The movement also believes that ableism makes other forms of prejudice possible and that systems of oppression are intertwined. The disability justice framework is being applied to a

intersectional Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

reexamination of a wide range of disability, human rights, and justice movements.

Origins

Initially conceived by queer, disabled women of color, Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, and Stacey Milbern, in the San Francisco Bay Area, disability justice was built in reaction to their exclusion from mainstream

disability rights movement The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...

and

disability studies Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual ...

discourse and activism, as well as the

in activist spaces. They were later joined by Leroy Moore, Eli Clare, and Sebastian Margaret. Disability justice centers "disabled people of color, immigrants with disabilities, queers with disabilities, trans and gender non-conforming people with disabilities, people with disabilities who are houseless, people with disabilities who are incarcerated, people with disabilities who have had their ancestral lands stolen, amongst others." As mentioned before, disability justice movements discuss the various systems of oppression even within the disability community. One specific example for the Asian American community would be how oftentimes, members are unable and refuse to get help for mental health because it is seen as "taboo" in their culture. Since mental health is an "untouchable" topic in Asian culture, members who struggle with it hide it due to shame and embarrassment, and therefore are not able to share their experiences with their community and society in general. This reflects how the identities of being an Asian American and also possessing a mental disability cause these members to have a "lesser" voice in society. The disability justice movement seeks to spread awareness on how ableism is much more complex than people struggling with a disability es Sins Invalid, the group through which the founders were connected, defines disability justice through ten key principles:

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

, leadership by those most affected,

anti-capitalism Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism with an alternati ...

solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

across different activist causes and movements, recognizing people as whole people,

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

, solidarity across different disabilities
interdependence
collective access, and collective liberation. The disability justice work of the Bay Area activists has informed the development of the Disability Justice Initiative in Washington, D.C. On July 26, 2018, the 28th anniversary of the

Americans With Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...

(ADA), the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...

(CAP) formally announced its Disability Justice Initiative, under the direction of Rebecca Cokley. CAP is the first public policy think tank to specifically focus on disability. Recognition of the need for an intentional and intersectional approach was driven in part by attempts to cut the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. In April 2019,

Performance Space New York Performance Space New York City, New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building. O ...

hosted a three-day festival developed around the disability justice framework. Performance Space New York worked with the political arts group Arika, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

and others to bring together disabled artists and writers. Entitled ''I wanna be with you everywhere'' (IWBWYE), the festival attempted to create an experience of "access intimacy", in which needs were "respected, anticipated, and lovingly welcomed".

Principles

Sins Invalid has detailed the following 10 principles of disability justice: *

Intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...

: Proponents of disability justice recognize that individuals have various identities (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, religious background, location, immigration status) that impact them in varying ways. As such, individuals experience privilege based on some of their identities and oppression based on other identities. * Leadership of those most impacted: Proponents of disability justice believe that people impacted by a specific form of oppression should be considered experts in that form of oppression; as such, proponents are interested in "lifting up, listening to, reading, following, and highlighting the perspectives of those who are most impacted by the systems we fght 'sic''against". * Anti-capitalist politics: Proponents of disability justice argue that "capitalism depends on wealth accumulation for some ..at the expense of others, and encourages competition as a means of survival", which harms people from oppressed groups. * Cross-movement solidarity: Proponents of disability justice argue that disability justice activists must work alongside activists for other social justice movements to "create a united front". * Recognizing wholeness: Proponents of disability justice believe that "each person is full of history and life experience. Each person has an internal experience composed of our own thoughts, sensations, emotions, sexual fantasies, perceptions, and quirks. Disabled people are whole people." * Sustainability: Proponents of disability justice argue that activists must "pace

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

elves, individually and collectively, to be sustained long-term", using experience as a guide "away from urgency and into a deep, slow, transformative, unstoppable wave of justice and liberation". * Commitment to cross-disability solidarity: Proponents of disability justice argue that every disabled person's experiences and perspectives should be valued. Further, they aim to include people with varied disabilities, including "people with physical impairments, people who are sick or chronically ill, psych survivors and people with mental health disabilities, neurodivergent people, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, Deaf people, Blind people, people with environmental injuries and chemical sensitivities, and all others who experience ableism and isolation that undermines our collective liberation". * Interdependence: Proponents of disability justice argue that before

European colonization The phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by various civilizations such as the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Han Chinese, and A ...

, individuals in communities critically depended upon one another, and disability justice aims to reestablish such systems of interdependence, including recognizing humanities dependence upon the land and more-than-human life. * Collective access: Proponents of disability justice believe all people should have equal access in society, which means being flexible and creative about the ways in which people interact with one another, the built environment, and more. This involves both advocating for the needs of individuals and the collective to receive access, as well as for systemic changes to address widespread access concerns. * Collective liberation: Proponents of disability justice believe all oppressed people should move together toward liberation.

Critiques of Disability Rights

Like earlier critiques of

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to human reproduction, reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights: Reproductive rights ...

reproductive justice Reproductive justice is a critical feminist framework that was invented as a response to United States reproductive politics. The three core values of reproductive justice are the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the righ ...

activists and critiques of

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

activists, the founders of the disability justice movement thought the

and

overly focused on straight white men with physical disabilities to the exclusion of others. Many in the disability justice movement were also critical of an emphasis on rights without a broader examination of systems of oppression (for example, the right to an education does not mean that all education is equitable). Writer and activist

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde ( ; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, professor, philosopher, Intersectional feminism, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "Bl ...

is frequently referenced as inspirational to the disability justice movement, for works such as her essay "A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer", which addresses disability, illness, and racial justice, emphasizing that "We do not live single issue lives". Writers such as Catherine Jampel have emphasized the importance of disability justice to an intersectional reexamination of environmental justice. Writers such as Jina B. Kim draw upon disability justice and "crip-of-color" critiques in an attempt to develop an intersectional critical disability methodology which emphasizes that all lives are "enriched, enabled, and made possible" through a variety of means of support.

Healthcare and Disability Justice

Medical Ableism

Medical ableism refers to the systemic and interpersonal biases within healthcare systems that result in the marginalization, misdiagnosis, or inadequate care of disabled people. From a disability justice perspective, medical ableism is not simply the result of ignorance or outdated practices but is rooted in structural inequities that devalue disabled lives, particularly those of people who are also marginalized by race, gender, class, or sexuality. Disability justice advocates emphasize that traditional medical models often frame disability as a problem to be cured or eliminated, rather than a valued identity or variation of human experience. This perspective can lead to what scholars and activists describe as ''diagnostic overshadowing'', where healthcare providers overlook or dismiss health concerns because of a patient's disability status. It also manifests in inaccessible medical equipment, exclusionary research practices, and assumptions about quality of life that influence decisions about treatment, reproduction, and end-of-life care. Disability justice critiques medical gatekeeping and instead calls for healthcare systems that prioritize interdependence, informed consent, and community knowledge. The framework challenges deeply ingrained beliefs about normalcy and productivity that underlie medical discrimination, particularly for multiply-marginalized disabled people—including Black, Indigenous, and people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities. This critique extends to public health, where policies and crisis responses have often deprioritized disabled people, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disability justice organizers highlighted triage protocols that explicitly or implicitly deemed disabled lives less worthy of medical resources, drawing connections between ableism, eugenics, and structural racism.Wong, A. (2020). ''Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century''. Vintage.

References

External links

Social justice resources for teachers. Disability justice
Commons Social Change Library, 2024.
Disability justice links
Commons Social Change Library, 2020. * *
Project LETS
Resource list for Disability Justice
"Interdependence (excerpts from several talks)"
{{authority control Disability rights Activism Social justice Intersectionality