Topological defects are key to understand melting of crystals in two dimensions. A dilute gas of bound thus virtual pairs of dislocations cause the softening of a crystal in the vicinity of the transition to the fluid. If thermal energy is high enough to unbind dislocation pairs, translational order is destroyed and the crystal to melts due to the lack of shear resistance. In an amorphous solid, the concept of topology seems counterintuitive due to the absence of order. Here, we discuss, how the definition of virtual dislocations can be generalized for a two-dimensional glass: we do not count 5/7/7/5 folded pairs on a sixfold background but the rate of +1/-1/-1/+1 events in the number of nearest neighbours on a disorder background. Based on positional data of a binary colloidal monolayer and data from computer simulations, we determine the fugazity of those generalized dislocation pairs and measure elasticity close to the glass transition: The Kosterlitz-Thouless renormalization approach works perfectly also in glass and Youngs’s modulus becomes the universal16π at melting. Analysing bond-order correlations we can rule out the formation of a hexatic-like glass within the given experimental resolution. A disclination-like unbinding following Nelson and Halperins arguments in 2D crystalls is preemted by the massive proliferation of generalized dislocation pairs.