Disabilities are understood differently depending on the theoretical framework we adopt. Biomedical approaches tend to focus attention on the extent to which specific physiological or psychological problems constrain individuals and the extent to which these problems can be overcome. By contrast, more recent work has drawn attention to the ways that material environments, cultural norms, and social relationships disable or enable people who live with a variety of embodied differences. Geographers have made a number of contributions to this evolving scholarship, focusing particular attention on the interrelationship between embodied experience of disability and the character of the social environment. These contributions vary significantly, with some designed to improve the geographic mobility of individuals, others offering conceptual advances, and yet others informing collective political action of disabled groups. In the process, geographers have had to confront ethical questions about how to work equitably with disabled persons as research participants and partners.