From The Commoner

Disabled people have been active parts of every liberatory movement. Yet when their histories are recounted, disability is often excluded to avoid tarnishing their reputations. This widespread and harmful practice strips away the full humanity of these figures and reinforces disability as a stigmatising characteristic. This essay aims to celebrate the lives of disabled anarchists by reclaiming their histories and framing disability not as an individual shameful failure that undermines one’s agency, legitimacy and personhood, but rather, as a neutral characteristic within the natural variation of humanity, one which likely deeply impacted their life experiences and perspectives. This essay will provide brief biographies of several disabled anarchists, briefly outline how ableism is foundational to other forms of oppression and provide an outline of The Social Model of Disability.