Finding keywords for disability studies can be challenging:
- Critical theory may use its own critical vocabulary and jargon
- Some terms related to disability may be used as metaphors in other contexts
- Older work may use dated terminology
- Older work may not have been cataloged as disability studies at all
Some keywords to try
- abledness, ableism,ableist, able-bodied, able-bodiedness
- access, accessible, accessibility
- ageism, ageist, aging
- crip/crip theory
- Deaf, deafness, deaf studies (Deaf people are a linguistic/cultural minority, not disabled)
- dis/ability, disability, disabilities, "disability studies", "disability rights", disabled
- disease, dis-ease
- enable, enabling
- inclusion, inclusiveness, inclusivity
- normalcy, normals, normative
- sick, sickness
- universal design
Rhetorical constructions in disability studies
If you're looking for specific readings or theorizations of a topic, try combining your keyword with frequently paired terms like:
- advocate, advocacy
- biology, biological, bioethics
- body, bodies
- critical
- difference
- "disability studies"
- discrimination
- "identity politics"
- medical, medicalization
- microaggression
- narrative, narratives
- politics, political
- representation, representations
- rhetoric, rhetorical, "visual rhetoric"
- signify, signifying
- visible, visibility, invisible, invisibility, visual
Text for this section courtesy of Stacy Reardon and Jennifer Dorner from the UC Berkeley Libraries.
