Behind every well meaning comment, every uninclusive policy, every inaccessible barrier, there is something far more chilling than a bump in the night.
A system that isolates, excludes, segregates and ostracises Disabled people.
A system that does not operate alone but conspires with others to deepen marginalisation.
That system is ableism.
A horrifying system built on exclusion, discrimination and the othering of Disabled people. Only unlike Halloween, these horrors do not come once a year. They are with us every single day.
What is even more disturbing is that Disabled people are rarely told about this system. We just live it. Some of us from birth, others after acquiring Disability, yet no one ever stops to name it. No one explains it. We experience it.
We navigate ableism daily, without a name for it, just a string of haunting encounters that repeat again and again.
And the more we self-advocate, the more we speak up, the more we share our access needs, the more visible it becomes.
It is terrifying. We live with ableism every day, yet no one pulled us aside and explained it. No one told our parents. No one taught us. We were left to figure it out alone, until someone finally names it, or we stumble across it online.
Until then, we are left experiencing the horror without language for what we are living through.
If we had a penny for every time we were gaslit, dismissed, or told “it is not that bad” … we would have enough to rebuild the systems that failed us.
This is the horror of being haunted by ableism, not just during spooky season, but every damn year, every single day. We live it. We experience it. And we are told to forget it.
But how do you forget the haunting reality of ableism? How do we overcome a system that exists to leave us othered, forgotten and excluded?
Well, the answer to that is not so simple, but we do cover it in our upcoming book Unlearning Ableism, The Ultimate No Nonsense Guide to Understanding Disability and Unlearning Ableism.
We wrote this book because we were tired of the silence. Tired of being haunted without a map. Tired of watching Disabled people blamed for the barriers we did not build.
Unlearning Ableism is not a checklist. It is a call to action. A demand for accountability. A guide for anyone ready to stop perpetuating harm and start dismantling it.
Whether you are Disabled, non disabled, newly navigating access, or deep in the work, this book is for you.
Because the horrors of ableism will not disappear until we name them, challenge them, and rebuild the systems that created them. And we are not waiting for permission…
Pre order your copy from our Linktree!
