“Crippled” is a particularly interesting example because of how the word “crip” (which comes from “cripple”) has been adopted by disability activists and scholars in a way that is similar to how LGBT activists and scholars have reclaimed the word “queer.” Many disabled people identify as crips, and to crip something does not mean to break it but to radically and creatively invest it with disability history, politics, and pride while simultaneously questioning paradigms of independence, normalcy, and medicalization.
