Beyond Ramps, Curb Cuts, and Captions: A Call for Disability Justice in Social Work

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In the United States and Canada, the adult disability community numbers 27 percent and 16 percent to 33 percent of the population, respectively (Statistics Canada, 2017; Varadaraj et al., 2019). Despite decades of advocacy, Disabled people continue to experience ableism—such as inaccessibility, stigma, and exclusion—in all realms of social work (Slayter & Johnson, 2022). In this Commentary, we use a mix of identity-first disability language and person-first disability language. In keeping with the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, we acknowledge that different members of the disability community may have different choices about how they wish to be referred to; APA (n.d.) offers a discussion on the subject. Additionally, when we speak of “Disability culture,” it is inclusive of neurodivergence, chronic illness, chronic pain, mental illness, madness, and so forth. As Disabled social work professionals and accomplices, we call on our nondisabled colleagues to develop their Disability cultural competence and to make inclusion and antiableism priorities in our field.