Able-bodied

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Able-bodied refers, in law, to an individual's physical or mental capacity for gainful employment or military service, and it is in this sense that the term is also used regarding eligibility for payment of child support or alimony.

The term is also used by disability rights activists and their supporters to refer to those who function "normally" in society and do not have an outward physical disability. In these circles, particularly amongst those who more closely align themselves with the "identity" of disability, 'able-bodied' is sometimes abbreviated in speech and/or writing to "AB", as in "that AB person over there". "AB" can even sometimes be used in a condescending and/or disparaging manner, as if to suggest a certain level of 'disability supremacy' because of disabled individuals' sometimes markedly-different perspectives on the physical world and their place in it. In that context "able-bodied" is seen almost as a type of immaturity due to the able-bodied person's lack of disability experience.

The term "nondisabled" is considered by some to be preferable to the term "able-bodied" because it moves "disability" from a marginalized to a centralized topic of discourse. Others, however, question the necessity of using what is essentially a double negative-rooted word ("non" and "dis" coupled in front of "abled") when the straightforwardly positive "able" works just as well or better; i.e., a 'non-negative' in anything is the equivalent of a positive.

See also

disability portal

• Ableism
• Social model of disability

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