Ableism

Ableism means intentional or unintentional prejudice against disabled people. Ableist thinking can lead to discrimination and oppression against disabled people.

Access Guide

A document containing information about a venue, performance, or event. An access guide or visual story typically includes logistical details (e.g., closest public transit, washroom locations, and whether the space is physically accessible) and information about what will be included in the performance or event.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a provincial law in Ontario that mandates disability accessibility in five areas: Customer service, employment, information and communications, transportation, and the built environment. Although the AODA became law in 2005, some of its provisions do not come into force until 2025, and it is likely that the final deadline for compliance will not be met.

Activism

Activism is the creative process of making change in society and politics. Activism is led by groups of people who need change in order to create better living conditions for themselves and others. There are many kinds of activism, including rallies and protests, research and policy change work, writing and art-making, and even posting on social media about personal experiences in order to create awareness and change people’s perceptions.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics refers to our sense of what is beautiful, interesting, and fulfilling. Aesthetics also refers to how art makes you feel and how your sense of beauty influences what you create.

American Sign Language (ASL)

American Sign Language (ASL) is a signed language that is used by some D/deaf people in English speaking parts of Canada. ASL is a distinct language and has its own syntax and grammar. 

AODA

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is a provincial law in Ontario that mandates disability accessibility in five areas: Customer service, employment, information and communications, transportation, and the built environment. Although the AODA became law in 2005, some of its provisions do not come into force until 2025, and it is likely that the final deadline for compliance will not be met.

Audism

Audism refers to negative attitudes toward or discrimination against D/deaf or hard of hearing people.

Beholders

Beholders: an inclusive term to describe interacting with art, film, print and other objects beyond the visual, which may include feeling, hearing, sensing, touching or embodying otherwise.

Beholding

Beholding: an inclusive term to describe interacting with art, film, print and other objects beyond the visual, which may include feeling, hearing, sensing, touching or embodying otherwise.

BIPOC

BIPOC is an acronym for “Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour”.

Bodies in Translation

Bodies in Translation is a research partnership grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, hosted by Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph. The grant supports disability and activist arts in Canada and asserts that access to art creates access to life.

Bodymind

Bodymind is a term used to recognize both the relationships between our bodies and our minds. In relation to disability, it acknowledges the “ways in which the ideology of cure operates as if the two are distinct—the mind superior to the body, the mind defining personhood, the mind separating humans from non-humans” (Clare, 2013).

British Council

The British Council is an organization that “strives to find new ways of connecting with and understanding each other through the arts, in order to develop stronger creative sectors around the world that are better connected with the UK” (British Council Canada, 2023).

Chill-out space

A chill-out space is a quiet room or area where people can go to relax and take a break from an event.

Cis

Cis and cisgender are words that people use to describe their gender identity as matching the sex assigned to them at birth. The term uses the Latin prefix cis, which means "on this side of", in contrast to the Latin prefix trans, which means "on the other side of".

Cisgender

Cis and cisgender are words that people use to describe their gender identity as matching the sex assigned to them at birth. The term uses the Latin prefix cis, which means "on this side of", in contrast to the Latin prefix trans, which means "on the other side of".

Colonialism

Colonialism is a structure of policies and practices of domination and control that involves the oppression and exploitation of people and land. Colonialism in Canada can be understood as “Indigenous peoples’ forced disconnection from land, culture, and community” mainly by white settlers. “It has roots in Canada’s history, but it is alive and well today, too” (The Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women – Feminist Northern Network, 2016).

Crip

"Crip is a term many people within disability studies and activist communities use not only in reference to people with disabilities, but also to the intellectual and art culture arising from such communities. Crip is shorthand for the word 'cripple' which has been (and is) used as an insult toward people with disabilities, but which has been re-appropriated as an intra-group term of empowerment and solidarity" (Schalk, 2013).

Like queer, crip is an expansive term bringing together multiple identities. It is also similarly political and confrontational, positioned as a challenge to dominant abled norms (Kafer, 2013, pp. 14–16). Crip is both a noun and a verb: When we crip, we “open up with desire for the ways that disability disrupts” (Fritsch, 2012).

Critical pedagogy

Critical pedagogy, a term coined by Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire (2005), links learning with social justice. The goal of critical pedagogy is to create a “critical consciousness” enabling learners to question and challenge oppression.