Stigma is part of the complex of factors that transform impairment into disability. The term refers to the disapproval and disadvantage that attach to people who are seen as different; its repercussions can be far-reaching. Stigma affects employment, social recognition, educational opportunities, friendship and sex, housing, and freedom from violence. _Stigma_ in Greek means to prick or to puncture, and the word originally referred to a sharp instrument used to brand or cut slaves or criminals. The fact that stigma is still closely associated with visible forms of difference—leprosy, needle tracks, missing limbs, and obesity, for instance—recalls this history, as does the fact that it retains associations of moral disgrace. Today, the term is more abstract and more general and refers to social forms of stigma—to the discredit or dishonor that attaches to a wide range of human variation. Stigma’s associations with enslavement lasted through the nineteenth century, when the term described the brands and marks used to identify and to punish enslaved people in the United States, and it also connoted a moral taint or sign of disgrace. Along with these associations of infamy, the term is linked via the Christian tradition to the idea of grace. Stigmas (or...