Disabling by Design

A critical framework describing how systems, policies, and processes create disability through their design rather than through malicious intent. When a system requires cognitive, physical, or sensory capabilities that it simultaneously undermines or fails to accommodate, it is disabling by design. For example, ADHD medication access systems that demand sustained executive function from people whose executive function is impaired by the condition they are seeking treatment for. The concept extends the social model of disability by focusing specifically on how institutional and technological design choices produce barriers, shifting responsibility from individuals to system designers.