DISABILITY TERMINOLOGY AND LANGUAGE
How would you describe someone with a disability? According to the Australian Network on
Disability, it is defined as “any condition that restricts a person’s mental, sensory or mobility
functions. It may be caused by accident, trauma, genetics or disease. A disability may be temporary or permanent, total or partial, lifelong or acquired, visible or invisible.”
About 1 in 5 people have a disability. That’s pretty common. However, the language and terminology used to refer to various disabilities is still often outdated, non-inclusive and sometimes downright derogatory. An example of words and phrases used to describe disabilities commonly used includes “wheelchair bound, blind, handicapped, crippled, “special needs”, brave, special, dwarf (when referring to someone with dwarfism), and disabled person just to name a few. Some more offensive terms include words like “retarded, slow or “aspie” (someone on the Autism spectrum).
Some people may not see anything wrong with many of these terms, but how would it make you feel if you were described as “wheelchair bound”, “handicapped” or “special?”. Would it make you feel empowered and like you were seen as the same as everyone else? Or would it make you feel small, looked down on, or like someone was being patronising? We often prefer the term “wheelchair user.” Have you ever heard of Person-first language? This describes when a person with a disability is seen as just that: a person with a disability, and not a “disabled person”. When we say “disabled person” or just “the disabled”, the person is seen as secondary, and not a human being first. It may seem trivial, but it makes a massive difference to the way someone with a disability both sees themselves, and how society also sees them. Let’s take the phrase “wheelchair bound” for example. A person is not “bound” to their wheelchair, they simply use them for mobility and to live their lives. A person who wears glasses is not referred to as someone “bound” to their glasses, simply someone who uses
them to see. We don’t hear someone who uses a walking frame as being “walking frame bound”, so why is this different? Nor do people like hearing that they are “suffering from” a disability.
Unless you have an illness that makes a person feel as if they are “suffering”, many people simply live with their disability and don’t give it too much thought.
On the flip side, a lot of language used in society is meant to sound positive, such as “special needs”, brave or inspirational. This is condescending as it indicates someone is being praised just for living a normal life with a disability. Imagine just going to get groceries and being called an “inspiration” for doing so. When referring to someone with any type of disability, some more appropriate words include the
following:
person with disability
person who is deaf or hard of hearing
person who is blind or has low vision
person with intellectual disability/ developmental disability
person of short stature, little person
I hope this has shed some light on some more appropriate terms to use when referring to
disabilities, however the best and most inclusive approach is always simply to ask how one would like to be described!