The prototypical disabled person and its implications for discrimination research and intersectionality

Prototypes are idealized examples of the "typical" member of that group. Prototypicality plays an important role not only in how people are treated and discriminated against, but also whose experiences with discrimination are seen as legitimate. When it comes to research, prototypicality can also mask the experiences of people with multiply marginalized identities. The aim of this study was to examine prototypicality related to disability-what is the gender and race of the prototypical disabled person, does this differ based on participants' own identities, and does this impact perceptions of warmth?

We conducted an online survey in April 2025 with 230 people. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and ordinal regression models.

While picturing a disabled person who experienced discrimination, 59.9% of participants thought of a cisgender man, and 79.0% of participants thought of a White person. When gender and race were combined, disabled White men were prototypical 49.5% of the time, disabled White women 29.8%, disabled Black men 7.2%, disabled Black women 5.3%, and all other combinations of race and gender identities less than 2% each. There was no significant relationship between participants' own identities and prototypicality. There was a relationship between prototypicality and warmth, with disabled White women rated significantly warmer (OR [CI] = 2.18 [1.09, 4.36]).

Prototypicality has significant implications not only for the ways we produce and enact science but also for our attempts to reduce discrimination and combat inequity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).