Aversive Disablism

Aversive disablism is a concept from disability studies, developed by Mark Deal, describing a form of subtle, often unconscious prejudice toward disabled people. Aversive disablists recognize that discrimination is wrong and do not see themselves as prejudiced, yet they hold implicit biases that favor non-disabled people — not anti-disabled, but pro-non-disabled. This in-group favoritism can be as damaging as overt discrimination because it operates below conscious awareness, influencing decisions about design, policy, and resource allocation. In web development, aversive disablism manifests when developers create barriers like inaccessible CAPTCHAs or exclude disability from digital inclusion agendas without recognizing these as discriminatory acts.