Othering, Ableism, and Disability: How Society Creates Outsiders Among Us

What Is Othering?

At its core, othering is a social and psychological process through which one group defines itself by distinguishing - and distancing - itself from another group. It's the practice of viewing or treating people as fundamentally different, alien, or inferior based on certain characteristics (Rogers, 2019). Rather than celebrating diversity or acknowledging shared humanity, othering creates an "us versus them" dynamic where the dominant group positions itself as normal, superior, and deserving, while the "othered" group is marked as deviant, deficient, or problematic.

The term may sound academic, but the reality is anything but abstract. Othering happens when a group of people uses difference as a reason to exclude, stereotype, diminish, or discriminate against others. It transforms human variation into hierarchies of worth.

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The Mechanics of Othering

Othering operates through several interconnected mechanisms. First, it relies on categorization - the human tendency to sort people into groups. While categorization itself is a normal cognitive process, othering takes this further by attaching negative meanings and assumptions to certain categories. A person isn't simply someone who uses a wheelchair; they become "the wheelchair person," defined primarily by their disability rather than their full identity.

Second, othering involves what researchers call "discursive construction" - the ways language and narratives shape our perceptions. When coworkers struggle to discuss a colleague with visible impairments, they often spontaneously reference other groups they perceive as different, such as immigrants or LGBTQ+ individuals (Mik-Meyer, 2016). This reveals how othering isn't about one specific group but rather a pattern of thinking that consistently marks certain people as outside the norm.

Third, othering creates and reinforces boundaries between the "normal" and the "abnormal." These boundaries are not natural or fixed; they must be continually maintained through social practices, institutional policies, and everyday interactions (Simpson, 2012). What counts as a disability worthy of accommodation? Who decides when someone is "too old" to make their own decisions? These questions reveal the constructed nature of the boundaries othering creates.

Othering as a Binary System

Fundamentally, othering establishes a binary: there is the dominant group (often unmarked and treated as neutral or universal) and everyone else. In Western societies, this dominant group has historically been defined by able-bodiedness, youth or middle age, whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality, and economic stability. Anyone who deviates from these norms risks being othered.

However, as scholars note, othering is not a single, simple process. A person can be subjected to multiple, simultaneous forms of othering based on intersecting identities - being Black and disabled, for instance, or being an older woman with a chronic illness (Crenshaw's intersectionality framework). Each form of othering compounds the others, creating unique experiences of marginalization that cannot be understood by examining any single category in isolation.

The Consequences of Othering

When people are othered, they become outsiders in their own lives and communities. Research shows that othering produces several harmful outcomes:

Social exclusion: Othered individuals are left out of group activities, decision-making processes, and social networks. They may be physically present but treated as if they don't fully belong.

Stereotyping and prejudice: Othering relies on and reinforces negative stereotypes. Rather than seeing individuals in their full complexity, people apply blanket assumptions based on group membership.

Discrimination: Othering translates into unequal treatment in employment, healthcare, education, and public life. It justifies denying opportunities, resources, and rights to those marked as other.

Dehumanization: In extreme cases, othering can strip people of their perceived humanity, treating them as problems to be managed rather than people to be valued.

Internalized oppression: People who are repeatedly othered may begin to internalize negative messages about themselves, leading to diminished self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.

Ableism: Othering Through the Lens of Ability

Ableism is a specific form of othering centered on disability and bodily difference. It encompasses discrimination, stereotypes, and social prejudice against people with physical, cognitive, sensory, or psychiatric disabilities (Campbell, 2009). At its foundation, ableism rests on the belief that able-bodied people are superior to those with disabilities, and that disability represents something wrong, broken, or deficient that needs fixing.

Understanding Ableism

Ableism operates on several levels simultaneously. At the individual level, it manifests in attitudes and beliefs - the assumption that a person using a wheelchair must also have intellectual disabilities, or that blind people possess some mystical compensatory insight. These stereotypes, while sometimes seeming positive, ultimately deny the full, complex humanity of people with disabilities.

At the interpersonal level, ableism shapes how people interact. It appears in the patronizing "inspiration porn" that treats disabled people doing ordinary activities as extraordinarily heroic. It surfaces when someone speaks to a deaf person's companion rather than addressing the deaf person directly, or when strangers feel entitled to ask invasive questions about someone's medical history.

At the institutional level, systemic ableism becomes embedded in policies, practices, and physical environments. Buildings without ramps or elevators, websites without screen reader compatibility, employers who refuse reasonable accommodations - these are all expressions of ableism that create barriers to full participation in society.

The Medical Model Versus the Social Model

Understanding ableism requires grappling with two competing models for understanding disability. The medical model treats disability primarily as a health condition residing within the individual - something to be diagnosed, treated, and ideally cured. This model locates the "problem" in the person's body or mind.

The social model, by contrast, views disability as created by society. Impairments exist, but disability emerges from the interaction between impairment and an environment designed only for able-bodied people. A person who uses a wheelchair isn't disabled by their inability to walk; they're disabled by stairs, narrow doorways, and inaccessible transportation. The social model shifts focus from "fixing" individuals to changing society.

Ableism typically operates from a medical model perspective, treating disability as inherently negative and people with disabilities as perpetually in need of remediation. This reinforces othering by marking disabled bodies as deviant from an able-bodied norm.

How Ableism Others People with Disabilities

Ableism creates otherness through several mechanisms:

Defining by disability: Rather than seeing a person with multiple facets to their identity, ableism reduces them to their disability. They become "the disabled person" rather than a full individual who happens to have a disability.

Assuming dependency and incompetence: Ableist attitudes presume that people with disabilities cannot make decisions, live independently, work productively, or contribute meaningfully to society. These assumptions persist even in the face of contrary evidence.

Segregation and exclusion: Historically and currently, ableism has justified separating people with disabilities from mainstream society - through institutionalization, separate educational settings, or simply inaccessible public spaces that make participation impossible.

Infantilization: Ableism often treats adults with disabilities as childlike, speaking to them in simplified language, making decisions for them without consultation, or assuming they need constant supervision.

Erasure and invisibility: Paradoxically, while people with disabilities are marked as different, they're also often excluded from representation in media, research, and policy-making. Their voices and perspectives are absent from conversations that directly affect their lives.

A striking example of how ableism and othering intersect appears in research on workplace dynamics. When coworkers were asked about colleagues with visible impairments, many struggled to discuss the disability directly. Instead, they spontaneously mentioned other people they constructed as different - immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, people from different cultural backgrounds (Mik-Meyer, 2016). This reveals the contradiction at the heart of ableism: dominant discourses of tolerance make it uncomfortable to acknowledge difference, yet ableist thinking automatically produces and reinforces that difference. The result is an implicit othering that operates even when people have good intentions.

Forms of Ableism

Ableism takes many forms in daily life:

Physical ableism: Discrimination based on physical disabilities. Examples include inaccessible buildings, lack of accommodations for mobility devices, or assuming people with physical disabilities have diminished mental capacity.

Mental ableism (sanism): Prejudice against people with mental health conditions or cognitive disabilities. This includes paying neurodivergent workers below minimum wage, coercive treatment, or assuming people with mental illness are dangerous.

Structural ableism: Policies and systems that disadvantage people with disabilities, such as healthcare rationing plans that deprioritize disabled patients or employment practices that screen out applicants with disabilities.

Internalized ableism: When people with disabilities absorb negative messages and come to believe they are less worthy, capable, or valuable than able-bodied people.

The Intersection of Othering, Ableism, and Aging

Older adults occupy a complex position in discussions of othering and ableism. Aging itself is not a disability, yet seniors frequently experience both ageism (discrimination based on age) and ableism as these forms of othering intertwine. Many older adults develop disabilities or chronic conditions as they age, placing them at the intersection of multiple systems of marginalization.

Ageism as Othering

Ageism mirrors othering in its fundamental structure. It's the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against people because they are old (Butler, 1969). Like other forms of othering, ageism creates a binary between the "normal" (young and middle-aged adults) and the "other" (older people). It treats aging as deviance from an idealized norm of youth and productivity.

Research indicates that approximately one-third of older adults in England experience age discrimination, rising to nearly 37% among those aged 65 and older. In the United States, about 20% of people over 50 report age-based discrimination in healthcare settings. These aren't isolated incidents but systematic patterns of othering based on age.

How Seniors Are Othered

In healthcare settings: Older patients report that healthcare providers dismiss their symptoms as "just aging," speak to them in patronizing tones, or direct questions to adult children rather than the patient. Doctors may be less patient, responsive, or interested when treating older patients. Some physicians describe elderly patients as "depressing" or assume they're incompetent to make medical decisions. Research shows that older adults are less likely to be screened for cancers and less likely to receive potentially curative treatments even when diagnosed.

In the workplace: Despite laws prohibiting age discrimination, workers over 40 routinely face barriers. Studies show firms are more than 40% more likely to interview young applicants than older ones with identical qualifications. Older workers are stereotyped as resistant to change, technologically incompetent, less creative, and too slow. Many face forced retirement, denied promotions, or exclusion from professional development opportunities. The economic consequences can be devastating, as age discrimination limits income and increases poverty risk.

Through infantilization: Perhaps most insidiously, older adults are often treated like children. Adult children restrict parents' activities, take away car keys without consultation, or make healthcare decisions on their behalf, even when seniors remain fully capable of self-direction. This echoes the infantilization people with disabilities face and represents a profound form of othering that denies agency and autonomy.

Via segregation: Age-segregated communities, senior centers, and nursing homes can paradoxically increase isolation rather than connection. While some segregated settings serve important purposes, they can also mark older adults as fundamentally separate from the rest of society, creating what one researcher called "waiting rooms for death" - places people enter knowing they'll leave only through dying or moving to institutional care.

In media and culture: American culture particularly prizes youth, productivity, and independence. Advertisements push age-defying products, reinforcing the message that aging is something to fight against rather than a natural life stage. The Protestant work ethic equates personal value with productivity, leaving retirees feeling they've lost worth when they stop working. Older people are largely absent from media representation or appear only in stereotyped roles.

The Disability-Aging Connection

The connection between aging and disability is complex. While not all older adults have disabilities, the prevalence increases with age. Many seniors develop mobility limitations, sensory impairments, chronic pain, or cognitive changes. This places them squarely at the intersection of ageism and ableism.

When seniors develop disabilities, they face compounded othering. They're dismissed both for being old and for being disabled. Healthcare providers may attribute all symptoms to aging rather than investigating treatable conditions. Employment discrimination intensifies when older workers also have disabilities. Accessibility features designed for "the disabled" may still exclude older users if designers don't consider the specific needs of aging bodies.

Research on ableism and aging reveals how these forms of othering reinforce each other. Ableist narratives construct disability as the opposite of healthy, productive able-bodiedness. Ageist narratives similarly construct old age as decline, dependency, and diminishment. Together, they create powerful cultural stories that other older adults with disabilities as doubly deviant - too old and too disabled to fully count as members of society.

Self-Directed Othering and Internalized Ageism

One particularly harmful aspect of othering among seniors is internalized ageism - when older adults absorb negative cultural messages about aging and apply them to themselves. Research shows that negative beliefs about aging can accelerate cognitive decline, increase depression and anxiety, and even shorten lifespans by up to seven and a half years.

When an older person forgets where they put their keys and dismisses it as a "senior moment," they're engaging in self-directed othering. When they avoid asking for help they need because they fear confirming stereotypes of dependency, they're internalizing ageist messages. When they blame their sedentary lifestyle on age rather than societal barriers to exercise, they reinforce their own othered status.

This mirrors the internalized ableism people with disabilities experience. After repeatedly hearing that they're burdens, incompetent, or pitiable, some people with disabilities begin believing these messages. They may feel they don't deserve accommodations, question whether they're "disabled enough" to ask for help, or hide their disabilities to avoid stigma.

Real-World Examples of Othering

Understanding othering requires looking at concrete examples of how it operates in everyday life:

In Employment

A 55-year-old accountant with Type 2 diabetes applies for a promotion. Despite excellent performance reviews, she's passed over for a younger candidate. When she asks why, she's told the company is "looking for fresh perspectives" and someone who can "grow with the role long-term" - coded language for age discrimination. When she requests an accommodation for fatigue related to her condition, her supervisor questions whether she's "really diabetic" or just lazy. She faces simultaneous othering for her age and her disability.

In Healthcare

An 80-year-old man with mobility impairments visits his doctor complaining of increasing pain. Without examining him thoroughly, the doctor says, "Well, you're 80 - what do you expect?" The pain is dismissed as normal aging rather than investigated as a potentially treatable condition. When the patient asks about physical therapy, the doctor is skeptical that it's worth the investment at his age. The patient leaves feeling diminished and invisible, his concerns othered away.

In Public Spaces

A woman using a motorized wheelchair tries to attend a community meeting at the local library. The accessible entrance is locked, requiring her to call for someone to let her in. Once inside, the only accessible seating is in the back corner, far from the presentation screen. During the meeting, someone parks in the accessible bathroom stall because it's larger and more convenient, leaving the woman unable to use the facilities. Each of these barriers sends a message: this space wasn't designed for you; you don't fully belong here.

In Family Dynamics

An adult daughter notices her 75-year-old father, who has mild cognitive changes, forgot to pay a bill. Without discussing it with him, she takes over his finances entirely. She stops inviting him to family gatherings that involve driving, assuming he shouldn't drive anymore without asking about his abilities or preferences. When he protests, she insists she's just trying to help, framing his resistance as evidence he can't make good decisions. Her father feels increasingly like a child in his own life - othered by the person who claims to care most.

Breaking the Cycle: Moving Beyond Othering

Recognizing othering is only the first step. Creating more inclusive communities requires active effort to dismantle the systems, attitudes, and practices that mark people as outsiders.

Individual Actions

People can challenge othering in their daily lives by:

Examining assumptions: Question automatic thoughts about people with disabilities or older adults. Where do these beliefs come from? Are they based on evidence or stereotypes?

Using inclusive language: Avoid euphemisms like "special needs" or "physically challenged." Use identity-first or person-first language based on community preferences. Don't use disability or age as insults.

Practicing genuine inclusion: Don't just invite people with disabilities or older adults to events - ensure they can fully participate. Ask about accessibility needs. Make accommodations standard, not special requests.

Amplifying voices: Step back and listen when people with disabilities or older adults speak about their experiences. Support their leadership rather than speaking for them.

Challenging othering: When you notice othering language or behavior, address it respectfully but directly. Silence allows othering to continue unchallenged.

Institutional Changes

Organizations and institutions must:

Design for accessibility: Build universal design into structures, programs, and policies from the beginning rather than adding accessibility as an afterthought.

Include diverse voices: Ensure people with disabilities and older adults are represented in leadership, planning, and decision-making. Nothing about them without them.

Train staff: Provide education on ableism, ageism, and othering. Help people recognize unconscious biases and develop more inclusive practices.

Review policies: Examine institutional policies for ways they may disadvantage or exclude people with disabilities or older adults. Change policies that create unnecessary barriers.

Collect and act on data: Track outcomes for people with disabilities and older adults. If disparities exist, investigate causes and implement solutions.

Cultural Transformation

Ultimately, ending othering requires cultural change. This means:

Shifting narratives: Challenge stories that portray disability and aging only as tragedy, burden, or inspiration. Support diverse, authentic representations.

Redefining normalcy: Recognize that human variation is normal. There is no single standard body or life course that everyone should match.

Valuing interdependence: Move beyond ideals of rugged individualism to recognize that everyone needs support sometimes. Dependency is not failure; it's part of the human condition.

Embracing lifecycle thinking: Recognize that most people will experience disability at some point, whether through aging, illness, injury, or other causes. Creating accessible, inclusive communities benefits everyone.

Conclusion

Othering is not a natural or inevitable feature of human societies. It's a socially constructed process through which dominant groups mark, marginalize, and exclude those they define as different. When we examine othering through the experiences of people with disabilities and older adults, we see how it operates - through language, assumptions, policies, and everyday interactions that position some people as insiders and others as outsiders.

Ableism provides a lens for understanding how disability becomes grounds for othering. It reveals the assumptions that able-bodied existence is normal and superior, that disability is inherently negative, and that people with disabilities are defined primarily by their impairments. These assumptions create real barriers - physical, social, economic, and psychological - that limit full participation in community life.

Seniors experience both ageism and often ableism as they age, facing compounded othering that dismisses their worth, autonomy, and contributions. Whether through healthcare providers who blame everything on age, employers who view older workers as obsolete, or family members who treat competent adults as children, older adults are repeatedly marked as other - no longer fully belonging to the society they helped build.

Yet othering is not inevitable. Recognition of how othering operates is the first step toward dismantling it. When we challenge our assumptions, use inclusive language, design accessible spaces, elevate marginalized voices, and work toward cultural transformation, we create communities where everyone belongs. The goal isn't to eliminate difference - human diversity is valuable and should be celebrated. The goal is to eliminate the hierarchies of worth that othering creates, recognizing instead our shared humanity and interconnectedness.

In the end, creating a world without othering isn't just about helping "them" - people with disabilities, older adults, or any other marginalized group. It's about recognizing that the boundaries between "us" and "them" are artificial and permeable. Most people will experience disability at some point. Everyone who lives long enough will grow old. When we other people with disabilities or seniors, we other our future selves. Building inclusive communities that refuse othering in all its forms isn't charity; it's enlightened self-interest and basic human decency.

References

Butler, R. N. (1969). Age-ism: Another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, 9(4), 243-246.

Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of ableism: The production of disability and abledness. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mik-Meyer, N. (2016). Othering, ableism and disability: A discursive analysis of co-workers' construction of colleagues with visible impairments. Human Relations, 69(6), 1341-1363.

Rogers, K. (2019). The psychology of othering in disability contexts. Journal of Social Psychology, 102, 98-115.

Simpson, M. K. (2012). Othering intellectual disability: Two models of classification from the 19th century. Theory & Psychology, 22(5), 541-555.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Author Credentials: Ian is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Disabled World, a leading resource for news and information on disability issues. With a global perspective shaped by years of travel and lived experience, Ian is a committed proponent of the Social Model of Disability-a transformative framework developed by disabled activists in the 1970s that emphasizes dismantling societal barriers rather than focusing solely on individual impairments. His work reflects a deep commitment to disability rights, accessibility, and social inclusion. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and accomplishments, visit his full biography.