DIS 499/599: Module 2: Topic 1: Online Lesson
Week 6: 2/18 - 2/24
Objectives:
* To build awareness of connotations of disability-related words
* To identify and encourage the use of neutral or positive, respectful terminology
* To practice the use of person-first language
To complete this assignment successfully, you should:
1. Read these articles about person-first language and portraying individuals with disabilities in the media.
2. From this day on use person-first language.
Online Lesson: How Language Shapes Values
1. It's the Person First - Then the Disability, reprinted with permission from the Pacesetter Newsletter, Fall 2000, The PACER Center, Minneapolis, MN.
What do you see first?
The wheelchair?
The physical problem?
The person?
If you saw a person in a wheelchair unable to get up the stairs into a building, would you say, "there is a handicapped personal unable to find a ramp?" Or, would you say, "there is a persons with a disability who is handicapped by an inaccessible building?"
What is the proper way to speak to or about someone who has a disability? Consider how you would introduce someone - Jane Doe - who doesn't have a disability. You would give her name, where she lives, what she does or what she is interested in: she like swimming, or eating Mexican food, or watching movies.
Why say it differently for a person with a disability? Every person is made up of many characteristics - mental as well as physical. Few people want to be identified only by their ability to play tennis or by their love for fried onions.
In speaking or writing, remember that children or adults with disabilities are like everyone else - except they happen to have a disability. Therefore, here are a few tips for improving your language related to people with disabilities.
1. Speak of the person first, then the disability.
2. Emphasize abilities, not limitations.
3. Do not label people as part of a disability group. Don't say "the disabled." Instead, say "people with disabilities."
4. Don't give excessive praise or attention to people with disabilities; don't patronize them.
5. Choice and independence are important. Let the person do or speak for himself or herself as much as possible.
6. A disability is a functional limitation that interferes with a person's ability to walk, hear, talk, learn, etc. Use handicap to describe a situation or barrier imposed by society, the environment, or oneself.
SAY... INSTEAD OF...
child with a disability Disabled or handicapped child
person with cerebral palsy CP or spastic
person who is deaf or hard of hearing deaf and dumb
person with mental impairment/retardation retarded or retard
person with epilepsy/seizure disorder epileptic
person who has... afflicted, suffers from, or victim
without speech, nonverbal mute or dumb
developmental delay slow
emotional disorder or mental illness crazy, insane, or mentally ill
uses a wheelchair confined to a wheel chair
with Down syndrome Mongoloid or retard
has a learning disability is learning disabled
has a physical disability crippled
congenital disability birth defect
condition disease (unless it is a disease)
seizures fits or spells
cleft lip hare lip
mobility impaired lame
medically involved/has a chronic illness sickly
paralyzed invalid or paralytic
has hemoplegia (paralysis of one side of the body) hemiplegic
has quadriplegia (paralysis of both arms and legs) quadriplegic
has paraplegia (loss of function in the lower body) paraplegic
of short stature dwarf or midget
accessible parking handicapped parking
2. Easter Seals: Tips for reporting on people with disabilities
Once you have completed this activity you should:
Go on to Online Reading
or
Go back to Topic 1
Email instructor: Becky.Raabe@nau.edu
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