Disability Awareness

Talking about Disability
(A Guide to Using Appropriate Language)

Life for most people with mental or physical disabilities is vastly improved over what it was twenty or thirty years ago.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws assure that people with disabilities have the same basic rights as people without disabilities.

Some things have been slower to change; namely, attitudes and perceptions about people with disabilities. Ignorance and discrimination can be serious impediments to achieving integration, productivity, and independence for people with disabilities.

The use of outdated language and words to describe people with disabilities contributes greatly to perpetuating old stereotypes. No longer should we view people with disabilities as helpless or tragic victims.

Awareness is the first step toward correcting this injustice. If public opinion about people with disabilities is to be brought up to date, the public needs to hear and learn to use appropriate language.

It is especially important for the media, elected officials, public speakers, and others in leadership positions to portray people with disabilities sensitively and realistically.

This material is intended as a guide to using descriptive words and language when talking to or about people with disabilities.

Guidelines for Talking about Disability

1. Do not refer to a person�s disability unless it is relevant.

2. Use �disability� rather than �handicap� to refer to a person�s disability. It is okay to use �handicap� to describe accessibility accommodations, such as handicap parking; but it is better to use �accessible� in those instances. It is also okay to say that a person is
handicapped by obstacles, such as architectural barriers or the attitudes of
ignorant or insensitive people. Never use �cripple/crippled� in any reference
to disability.

3. When referring to a person�s disability, try to use �people first� language. In other words, it is better to say �person with a disability� or �man who has autism� rather than � a disabled person� or �an autistic man, � particularly in a first reference.

4. Avoid referring to people with disabilities as �the disabled, the blind, the epileptics, the retarded, a quadriplegic,� etc. Descriptive terms should be used as adjectives, not as nouns.

5. Avoid negative or sensational descriptions of a person�s disability.
Don�t say �suffers from,� �a victim of,� or �afflicted with.� Don�t refer to people with disabilities as �patients� unless they are receiving treatment in a medical facility. Never say �invalid.� These portrayals elicit unwanted sympathy, or worse, pity toward acceptance is what people with disabilities would rather have.

6. Don�t portray people with disabilities as overly courageous, brave, special, or superhuman. This implies that it is unusual for people with disabilities to have talents or skills.

7. Don�t use �normal� to describe people who don�t have disabilities. It is better to say �people without disabilities� or �typical,� if necessary to make comparisons.

8. Never say �wheelchair-bound� or �confined to a wheelchair.� People who use mobility or adaptive equipment are, if anything, afforded freedom and access that otherwise would be denied them.

9. Never assume that a person with a communication disorder (speech impediment, hearing loss, motor impairment) also has a cognitive disability, such as mental retardation. On the other hand, people with mental retardation oftentimes speak well.
 

Rules for Approriate Language

USE

• person with a disability / has a disability
• people with disabilities / have disabilities
• disabled person / people (less preferred)
• people without disabilities
• typical person
• non-disabled people (less preferred)
• wheelchair user / uses a wheelchair
• congenital disability / birth anomaly
• has cerebral palsy (CP) or other condition
• has had polio / experienced polio
• has a disability as a result of polio
• people who have mental retardation (MR)
• person with mental retardation
• mentally retarded person (less preferred)
• child with a developmental delay (DD)
• person with a developmental disability
• person with Down Syndrome
• person who has epilepsy
• people with seizure disorders
• seizure / epileptic episode or event
• people who have mental illness
• person with a mental or emotional disorder
• people who are blind / visually impaired
• person who is hard of hearing
• person who is deaf / the Deaf (Deafness is a cultural phenomenon and should be capitalized in those instances.)
• speech or communication disability

AVOID

• the disabled / the handicapped
• invalids, patients
• crippled, deformed, defective (NEVER)
• normal, healthy, able-bodied
• wheelchair bound / confined to a wheelchair
• birth defect / affliction
• a victim of cerebral palsy
• suffers from polio / afflicted with polio
• post-polios (as a noun referring to people)
• the mentally retarded / mentally deficient
• a retardate / a retard (NEVER)
• a feeble-minded person
• the Down�s person / Mongoloid (NEVER)
• the epileptic (to describe a person)
• the epileptics (to describe people)
• fits / epileptic fits
• the mentally ill
• crazy, psycho, mental case (NEVER)
• the blind / blind as a bat (NEVER)
• hearing impaired (translates as �broken hearing� in sign language)
• deaf-mute
• deaf and dumb (NEVER)
• tongue-tied, mute
  

Reprinted with permission of Tennessee Disability Coalition.