Has anyone ever called you a word that made you feel inadequate or made you feel as though something was wrong with you? We may not often think of how language influences the way we think or perceive things around us. However, we must take some time to reflect on this because it will guide our understanding of the reasons why we think of people, things, concepts, and places in a particular way. This concept of language is also applicable to the ways we think of and talk about people with disabilities.
In our society, we are socialized to believe that “normal” means that a person has all of the physical characteristics that are biologically typical. We expect that an individual must have two arms, two legs, functional senses, and the ability to be typically developed. Generally speaking, this summarizes how we think of a “normal person”.
Therefore, society has made us believe that anything or anyone outside of this description is “not normal”. Logically, if something or someone is outside of what is socially accepted, the words that we use to refer to those people will reflect how we think of them.
Since society tends to think of people with disabilities as unfortunate and helpless beings, the words we use will also reflect this and cause us to feel “sorry”, sympathy, and “pity” for these people. Words such as “cripple”, “handicap”, “dumb”, “dunce” and “mongol” were all created to perpetuate the negative beliefs about people with disabilities. This is what we call Ableist Language.
If these are negative terms, what then do we say when we are talking about people with disabilities? In Disability Rights, there is the concept of “people-first language”. This is where we always refer to the person before their disability. For example, instead of saying “disabled person”, we say “person with a disability”. Using people-first language means that we recognize and acknowledge the inherent rights and dignity of all people, including people with disabilities.
We hope that you will consider the ways you think of and refer to people with disabilities, and how language influences those perceptions. If we respect the rights of people with disabilities, then we must make the effort to use rights-based and people-first language.
