Glossary

“A system of assigning value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness.

These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in eugenics, anti-Blackness, misogyny, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.

This systemic oppression leads to people and society determining people's value based on their culture, age, language, appearance, religion, birth or living place, ‘health/wellness,’ and/or their ability to satisfactorily re/produce, ‘excel’ and ‘behave.’”

You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism.”

Working definition by TL Lewis, developed in community with disabled Black/negatively racialized folk, especially @NotThreeFifths. January 2022.

Source: Desired Path Project

Academic accommodations consist of arrangements that allow a student with a disability a fair opportunity to engage in academic activities and fulfill essential course and program requirements.

Academic accommodations are put in place to provide equitable access to education for students with disabilities.  Academic accommodations address disability-related barriers that prohibit accessing materials in a course and the demonstration of knowledge and skills. (York University Student Accessibility Services: https://students.yorku.ca/accessibility)

Access is a process of negotiation between land, individuals, communities, and institutions that results in equitable outcomes. (influences: Papalia)

Source: Desired Path Project

It refers to the efforts and actions taken to address issues relating to access needs for individuals of the disability community.

An Access Check-In asks, “what do you need (or want) the group to know for you to participate?” It might also be an opportunity to respond to the questions, “how are you feeling and what do you need?” or “why are you here and what do you need?” or “what do you hope to learn and what do you need?” In the context of Disability Justice, everybody has needs to participate and access a space. It can be enough to say, “my access needs are met.” (influences, Sins Invalid)

Source: Desired Path Project

Access needs are accommodations—alterations or adjustments—that are required for disabled individuals to be able to enter and be in certain spaces, and effectively take part in certain functions or activities.

"Accessibility is a process that is forever changing versus a static state of being"

Source: Access-Centered Movement

A demonstrative act, be it personal or social, aims to influence decisions and processes within an institution.

Anti-ableism means actively working to dismantle ableism. It begins with recognizing that ableism exists, that it causes serious harm, and that nondisabled people benefit from this system. This is known as privilege.

Refers to attitudes, beliefs, stereotyping, discrimination and prejudice targeted at people of African descent.

Anti-oppression is recognized as attempts to mitigate the effects of systemic oppression and eventually equalize the power imbalance in our communities.

Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups.

Barriers / Systemic Barriers are forms of structural obstacles that prevent individuals and/or groups from gaining opportunities and enjoining benefits that are available in a society.

This theoretical framework takes into consideration the historical, social, cultural, political, and economic forces shaping the intersectional nature of oppression.

Capitalism: “An economic system in which certain people or companies own the majority of the wealth and resources, and are able to make decisions that impact those who need money, food, shelter, etc. In capitalism, the world is divided into two categories: those who have things/ those who want things; those who sell things/ those who buy things. One common feature of capitalism is a high level of competition; the idea that there isn’t enough to go around and that you have to fight to get what you need, by being better/faster/smarter/stronger than other people (Skin, Tooth, & Bone, Sins Invalid, Glossary).”

Source: Keri Gray Consulting Group

The educational level, income profile, occupational position, opportunities in the social collectivity, and the class-based perceptions of individuals, directly impact their life chances and broadly constitute an individual or a group socioeconomic position.

“the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area; the action of appropriating a place or domain for one’s own use (Oxford Languages).” Colonialism: “The formal process of an organized group or government taking land, resources, medicine, histories, and body- and land-autonomy away from the existing Indigenous peoples (Skin, Tooth, & Bone, Sins Invalid, Glossary).

Source: Keri Gray Consulting Group

“Disability is a word that links people of common overlapping related experiences of oppression based in navigating a world designed and defined by able-bodied people. This term has been reclaimed by people whose bodyminds have been medicalized and pathologized, working from an empowered perspective.” (Sins Invalid, 153)

Source: Desired Path Project

A social justice movement which focuses on examining disability and ableism as they relate to other forms of oppression and identity such as race, class and gender.

The process in which students or workers reveal their disabilities to their university (including faculty or other university representative) or employer (adapted from Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act).

Source: AODA

When people are forced to leave the place where they normally live (Cambridge online dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/displacement)

“Equity is the promotion of fairness and justice for each individual that considers historical, social, systemic, and structural issues that impact experience and individual needs.” (University of Toronto, 2019, website: https://research.utoronto.ca/equity-diversity-inclusion/equity-diversity-inclusion).

Focusing on European culture or history and regarding it as more important than the culture or history of other regions (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, online,  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/eurocentric)

The process of removing something, especially by force (Cambridge dictionary online: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/extraction)

Historically White Institutions

Imperialism: “a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force (Oxford Languages).” “A policy or practice of extending the power of a nation over other lands and peoples, through colonization or by gaining control over the political or economic life of another area; the extension or imposition of power, authority or influence (Skin, Tooth, & Bone, Sins Invalid, Glossary).”

Source: Keri Gray Consulting Group

Intersectionality A word created by a scholar named Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe overlapping systems of oppression. It means that not everyone experiences disability or marginalization the same way. For example, some of us experience disability in a way that is impacted by our experience of race, gender, and sexuality.

Source: Tangled Arts and Disabilty 

Land back: “LANDBACK is a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands (LandBack.org – which has its manifesto and organizing principles).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi with Keri Gray Consulting Group

Lived experiences - the things that someone has experienced themselves, especially when these give the person a knowledge or understanding that people who have only heard about such experiences do not have (Cambridge dictionary online https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/lived-experience)

Mad: mentally ill, a reference to the Mad Pride movement dealing with issues like forced treatment and medication or stigma, and reclamation and undermining of the negative use of “mad” which is another version of “crazy”, “Mad Pride is a mass movement of the users of mental health services, former users, and the aligned, which advocates that individuals with mental illness should be proud of their ‘mad’ identity (Wikipedia). Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from the Keri Gray Consulting Group

"Mad is a word sometimes used by some of us who have experienced mental distress and/or use the mental health system." (Cripping the Arts Access Guide, Tangled Arts and Disability)

Marginalize is a word that describes treating a person, group of people, or ideas as not important. When people are marginalized, their rights and ideas are not seen or heard as central or important.

Source: Cripping the Arts Access Guide, Tangled Arts and Disability

Medicalize is to consider something to be a medical problem, or to represent it as a medical problem (Cambridge Dictionary online: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/medicalize)

Misandry is a hatred of men (Merriam-Webster, online dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misandry)

Misogynoir is the hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against Black women (Merriam-Webster, online dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misogynoir)

Misogyny: “dislike of or prejudice against women (Oxford Languages).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from the Keri Gray Consulting Group

The term "systems of oppression" helps us better identify inequity by calling attention to the historical and organized patterns of mistreatment. In the United States, systems of oppression (like systemic racism) are woven into the very foundation of American culture, society, and laws. Other examples of systems of oppression are sexism, heterosexism, ableism, classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism. Society's institutions, such as government, education, and culture, all contribute or reinforce the oppression of marginalized social groups while elevating dominant social groups.

Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Plantation Capitalism “We define plantation capitalism as a social and economic management system in Southern cities where the descendants of planter families maintain political and economic dynasties largely by keeping Black workers in extreme poverty, landless, and without political power through extractive policies and police terrorism” (Root Cause Research Center, 2020, online: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/post/plantation-capitalism-in-louisville-kentucky)

“Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes.”  (Mental Health America, 2024, online: https://www.mhanational.org/racial-trauma)

“The term “racialized” is a sociological concept closely related to racism. People seen as belonging to racialized minorities are people who could be perceived as being socially different from, for example, the racial or ethnic majority. In Canada, the term “racialized minority” usually refers to non-white people. The word “racialized” stresses the fact that race is neither biological nor objective but is a concept which is societal in origin. Categorizations other than “racialized” include “people of colour” or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour).” (The Canadian Encyclopedia, online: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racialized-minorities)

Racism: “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized (Oxford Languages).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from Keri Gray Consulting Group

Reparation is the action of making amends for a wrong or harm done by providing payment or other assistance to the wronged party; an instance of this. (Oxford English Dictionary, online: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/reparation_n?tab=meaning_and_use#26109012).

Responsibilization is the process of making individuals responsible for functions and risks that were previously the responsibility of the university. This is adapted from definition from: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199543052.001.0001/acref-9780199543052-e-1338

Self-identify: To identify or describe oneself as belonging to a particular category or group of people; to assign a particular characteristic or categorization to oneself. (Oxford English Dictionary, online: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/self-identify_v?tab=meaning_and_use#1210187540)

“Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that perpetuates the genocide and repression of indigenous peoples and cultures. Essentially hegemonic in scope, settler colonialism normalizes the continuous settler occupation, exploiting lands and resources to which indigenous peoples have genealogical relationships. Settler colonialism includes interlocking forms of oppression, including racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism” (Cox, 2017, Oxford Bibilographies:  https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0029.xml)

Constructed: created; “A social construct is a concept that exists not in objective reality, but as a result of human interaction. It exists because humans agree that it exists (VeryWellMind.com/definition-of-social-construct-1448922).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from Kery Gray Consulting Group

Stigma: bad reputation based on negative social attitudes resulting in negative consequences surrounding an issue, topic, or identity.

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from Keri Gray Consulting Group

Systemic violence - “Systemic violence refers to the harm people suffer from the social structure and the institutions sustaining and reproducing it. This type of violence prevents its victims from satisfying their basic needs, and is an avoidable impairment of the fundamental means necessary for human existence” (Ruggiero, 2019)

Systems of oppression: “Forms of discrimination and inequality that are backed by laws and policies and work together to compound negative impacts and make it difficult to fight back against them (Skin, Tooth, & Bone, Sins Invalid, Glossary).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from Kery Gray Consulting Group

Tokenism - the practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly (The Britannica Dictionary, online: https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/tokenism)

White supremacy: “A system built on the belief that whiteness and white people are better than everyone else, and should dominate society. This belief system can show up in both subtle and extreme ways depending on context, and is perpetuated in both our actions and inactions when we don’t take time and care to challenge it (Skin, Tooth, & Bone, Sins Invalid, Glossary).”

Source: Deanna Parvin Yadollahi from Keri Gray Consulting Group

Whiteness - the fact or state of belonging to a population group that has light pigmentation of the skin: the fact or state of being white (Merriam-Webster, online: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whiteness)

and 

Whiteness and White racialized identity refer to the way that White people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared. (Smithsonian, National Museum of African American History & Culture, online: https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness )

Whitewash - to alter (something) in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people (Merriam-Webster, online: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whitewash)