Choose to Put People First

posted by Katie Slade on Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Language is a powerful thing. It can bring people up or push people down - it can help and it can hurt. Thankfully, many of us can choose how we use this powerful gift.

People with disabilities are people - people who have individual abilities, interests and needs. People with disabilities are moms, dads, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, friends, neighbors, coworkers, students, teachers, and so much more. If you think about it, you'll see there are many more similarities than differences between people of all shapes, colors, sizes and abilities.

Incorporate your people first way of thinking into your language. In talking about a person with a disability, we may hear or say things like, "He's got Down's." Without much thought, it can be easy to say. Person first language is an alternative way to talk about a person with a disability that puts the person and not their disability first. Here's some more examples:

Instead of:

• He's ADHD.
• She's got Down's.
• He's learning disabled.
• A disabled program is down this hall.

Try these statements:

• This little boy has ADHD.
• Karen has Down's Syndrome.
• This child has a learning disability.
• Down this hall is a program for people who have disabilities.

These subtle yet powerful adjustments will help us put people with disabilities in the light of being capable and deserving of respect. Be mindful, however, that some persons with disabilities have their own preferences about how we discuss their disability. When in doubt, listen and observe the language this person uses and take your cues from what you hear them say.

Other Helpful Tips:

• Recognize that people with disabilities are ordinary people with common goals for a home, a job and a family. Talk about people in ordinary terms.
• Describe people without disabilities as "typical" rather than "normal."
• Never equate a person with a disability -- such as referring to someone as retarded, an epileptic or quadriplegic. These labels are simply medical diagnosis. Tell what a person HAS, not what a person IS.
• Emphasize abilities not limitations. For example, say a man walks with crutches, not he is crippled.
• Avoid negative words that imply tragedy, such as afflicted with, suffers, victim, prisoner and unfortunate.
• Avoid terms with obvious negative or judgmental connotations, such as "crippled," "deaf and dumb," "lame," and "defective."
• A developmental disability is not a disease. Avoid words like "symptoms," "patients," or "treatment," unless the person you're describing has an illness as well as a disability.
• Recognize that a disability is not a challenge to be overcome, and don't say people succeed in spite of a disability. Ordinary things and accomplishments do not become extraordinary just because they are done by a person with a disability. What is extraordinary are the lengths people with disabilities have to go through and the barriers they have to overcome to do the most ordinary things.
• Use handicap to refer to a barrier created by people or the environment. Use disability to indicate a functional limitation that interferes with a person's mental, physical or sensory abilities, such as walking, talking, hearing and learning. For example, people with disabilities who use wheelchairs are handicapped by stairs.
• Do not refer to a person as bound to or confined to a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are liberating to people with disabilities because they provide mobility.
• Do not use "special" to mean segregated, such as separate schools or buses for people with disabilities, or to suggest a disability itself makes someone special.
• Promote understanding, respect, dignity and positive outlooks.
   

One final note, if the disability is not relevant to your conversation, why mention it at all?