LANGUAGE is the tool
people use to shape and reflect of their
thoughts, beliefs, feelings and concepts. Some
words by their very nature degrade and diminish
people with a disability and reinforces negative
assumptions and stereotypes.
Perhaps the most dangerous
misuse of language in describing people with a
disability has been to dehumanise the individual
by labeling the person as the disability. For
example, the quad, a spastic etc.
The language customarily
used to describe disabling conditions has been
condemnatory, judgmental or couched in medical
terms. What is lacking in an individual is
usually emphasised rather than their
capabilities.
Even words describing a
person’s medical condition i.e. polio,
quadriplegia suggest sickness and imperfection.
Such words focus on attention on the condition
and not the person as a unique
individual.
Due to the importance of
language, there is considerable controversy
about how people with a disability should be
described. Words such as invalid, unfit,
disabled, impaired, infirm, incapacitated,
defective, retarded start with in,
im, dis, un or de
which imply a lack of something or some kind of
inferiority (Hume, 1996).
Offensive words which
degrade people with disabilities
include:
- retarded;
- spastic;
- cripple;freak;
- abnormal;
- handicap;
- victim;
- sufferer;
- handicapped;
- invalid;
- afflicted with a
disability;
- defect;
- special.
People with disabilities
are always more likely to be handicapped by the
physical environmental and or the attitudes and
beliefs of society than by the disability
itself.
The most appropriate term
to use when identifying some with a physical
disability is “someone with a physical
disability” or specify the disability,
“some one with quadriplegia” or
“someone with post polio” or
“some one with cerebral palsy”
etc.
The emphasis should always
be on the person first without denying or
obscuring the reality of the disability. Silly
euphemisms like “physically
challenged” or “differently
abled” are useless and
unacceptable.
The appropriate use of
language is only the first, but very important
step towards ensuring that people with
disabilities are treated with dignity and
respect. There is still a very long way to go
before the community has real understanding
about the needs of people with
disabilities.
Joan Hume,