Institutionalization

The historical and ongoing practice of placing disabled people in segregated residential facilities such as asylums, nursing homes, and other care institutions, often without their consent. Institutionalization became the default approach to disability in the United States in the 1850s and persisted largely unchallenged for over a century. Contemporary forms of institutionalization continue in nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and the prison system, where disabled people are disproportionately represented. In accessibility and technology design, institutional logics can inadvertently shape domestic technology through surveillance-based systems and clinical framing of daily life.