Equity Stance Glossary

Ability bias – Ability bias is the assumption that able-bodied people are the norm in society and that people
who have disabilities must either strive to become that norm or should keep their distance from abled people.
A disability is thus inherently a “bad” thing that must be overcome. In this worldview, disability is a flaw or a
failing rather than a simple aspect of human diversity. (Adapted from the Office of Developmental Primary
Care)

Accessible – Accessible means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same
information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in
an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with
a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a
disability. (Source: NC State University Disability Resource Office)

Community care – Community care offers an alternative to self-care and invites us to come up with creative
ways for people to get their needs met by working with others. This can be extremely helpful when a larger
structural system, like the government, doesn’t provide or meet the needs of those it is meant to serve. Folks
can then turn to those in their community to get the care and support they deserve. (Adapted from an article
from Allgo.org, “Some Thoughts on Community Care”)

Cultural humility – Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique
combined with a willingness to learn from others with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and
values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are. (Adapted from
Soundscapingsource.com, “Cultural Humility vs Cultural Competence”)

Disability – The term “disability” means, with respect to an individual—a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or
being regarded as having such an impairment. (Source: NW ADA Center Disability Toolkit)

Education employees – All people employed by an education entity including teachers, administrators,
paraprofessionals, counselors, specialists, school nurses, transportation staff, nutrition services staff, facilities
management staff, and other education support professionals. (Adapted from OEA Choice Trust Theory of
Change)

Equitable (equity) – Equity is when everyone gets what they need to have access, opportunities, and a fair
chance to succeed. Equity recognizes that the idea of equality (“the same for everyone”) may not address
widespread disparities and individual circumstances where individualized solutions are necessary. (Source:
Education Glossary Terms, Anti-Defamation League)

Ethnicity – A person’s identification with a group based on characteristics such as shared history, ancestry,
language and culture. (Source: Education Glossary Terms, Anti-Defamation League)

Gender – A social construct about the roles, behaviors, and actions men and women perform in a society.
The attitudes, customs, and values associated with gender are learned and are not something innate.
(Source: Love Has No Labels Glossary)

Gender identity – How a person defines and conceptualizes their own gender. Since gender identity is
internal, one’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others. (Source: Sierra, Education Glossary Terms,
Anti-Defamation League)

Holistic well-being – An interdependence of several dimensions of health, often inclusive of emotional,
financial, social, purpose and physical health and well-being. (Adapted from Better Up and OEA Choice Trust
Well-being Model)

Institutional racism – Policies, rules, practices, etc. that have become a usual part of the way an
organization or society works and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and
unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. (Source: Cambridge Dictionary)

Intersectional – The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, gender, and disability,
regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination. Intersectional theory asserts
that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression and that one’s overlapping identities
and experiences must be considered to understand the complexity of prejudices they face. (Adapted from the
Oxford Dictionary and YW Boston)

Microaggressions – The everyday slights, put-downs, and insults that marginalized people experience in
their daily interactions. Microaggressions are often linked to our implicit biases, occur outside our
consciousness, and may be unintentional. Microaggressions may occur verbally or nonverbally and can make
people feel ashamed and dehumanized. (Source: Education Glossary Terms, Anti-Defamation League)

Race – Refers to the categories into which society places individuals on the basis of physical characteristics
(such as skin color, hair type, facial form and eye shape). Though many believe that race is determined by
biology, it is now widely accepted that this classification system was in fact created for social and political
reasons. There are actually more genetic and biological differences within the racial groups defined by society
than between different groups. (Source: Anti-Defamation League)

Racialized trauma – Racial trauma is the result of ongoing exposure to racial stressors such as racism, racist
bias, discrimination, violence against people of color, and racist abuse in the media that creates an
environment in which a person of color feels unsafe simply because the color of their skin. It is widespread
among all marginalized or stigmatized racial groups. (Source: Zawn Villines, Medical News Today, 2020)

Sexual orientation – A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction to
others. In Western cultures, gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. Trans people can be
straight, bisexual, lesbian, gay, asexual, pansexual, queer, etc. just like anyone else. For example, a trans
woman who is exclusively attracted to other women would often identify as lesbian. (Source: Trans Student
Educational Resources)

Social determinants of health – Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born,
grow, live, work and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and
resources at global, national, and local levels. Social determinants of health have an important influence on
health inequities – the unfair and avoidable differences in health status. (Adapted from the World Health
Organization and Center for Disease Control)

Structural racism – Structural racism is a combination or system of factors that advantage white people. For
people of color, structural racism causes widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity.
Structural racism is grounded in the history of our [United States] laws and institutions which were created on
a foundation of white toxicity, exist in the institutions and policies that advantage white people and
disadvantage people of color and take place in interpersonal communication and behavior. (Adapted from
Education Glossary Terms, Anti-Defamation League)

Systemic racism – The complex system by which race is developed, maintained, and protected, is often
referred to as structural racism. The term was developed in part to help people working towards racial equity
emphasize the idea that racism in society is a system, with a clear structure and with multiple components.
(Source: Racial Equity Tools)

Westernized wellness industry – The culture and commodification of wellness in the West, often referred to
as “self-care” and focused on the individual rather than the collective, communal, or environmental/systemic
approaches to well-being. It centers white bodies and voices and often appropriates traditional knowledge and
practices. Wellness in the West has become synonymous with luxury, available only to the elite due to the
access to health and resources needed to pursue this type of wellness. This in turn, further exacerbates
existing divisions and hierarchies in western culture. (Adapted from Berkeley Business Review, Byrdie.com,
Maryam Ajayi “Unblocking White Supremacy and Fragility in the Wellness Industry”)

White toxicity – (1) The explicit or implicit belief that light-skinned, or White people constitute a superior race
and should therefore dominate society and other racial groups (2) The impact that this belief has individually,
interpersonally, and institutionally. (Source: Dr. Dana Crawford)