Guidance for Depicting Animals With Disabilities

ABSTRACT Animals with disabilities play a vital role in society, offering powerful opportunities for representation and education. However, when their stories are inadequately or inaccurately represented, it can reinforce misconceptions and hinder public understanding of disability. While tools and frameworks exist to guide conversations about people with disabilities, there are no equivalent resources for discussing animals with disabilities. This gap poses a challenge for zoos and aquariums, where staff may work closely with animals who have disabilities but lack inclusive language and approaches to share their stories. To address this, a team of disability scholars and zoo professionals in the US, many of whom have lived experience with congenital or acquired physical or cognitive disabilities, collaborated to develop best practices for framing these conversations based on recommendations from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The adoption of this guide can enhance positive perceptions of animals and people with disabilities. Future work needs to assess how this tool could be used or modified to be more inclusive of an international audience.