Rants & Ruminations
Rants & Ruminations
Disability-First Language
Professional writing standards call for person-first language and in most cases that seems just fine. The intention is clear enough. By referring to child with a disability, a woman with impaired mobility, or a person with cerebral palsy, we are emphasizing the personhood of the individual by putting it first and treating disability as a less relevant or incidental characteristic. In using person-first language we are saying that disability is not the most important thing about an individual, in an attempt to avoid the perception that regardless of the situation, the most important characteristic of an individual with a disability will always be viewed as his or her disability.
There are some problems with this, however, when it is applied as a universal rule of language. It is just as wrong to assume that disability can never be relevant or important as it is to assume that it is always relevant and important.
My friend and colleague, Barabara Waxman Fiduccia, once wrote a foreword for a book that I was writing, in which she referred to herself and others as “disabled women.” The well-intentioned publisher corrected this to a “women with disabilities.” After some vigorous discussion, she was finally allowed to write about the “oppression of disabled people” with a footnote explaining the reason for deviating from the appropriate person-first language. Barbara was proud of who she was and considered her disability to be an important part of her identity. De-emphasizing that part of her identity did not feel like a sign of respect to her.
When the world says:
“we see your gender but we are willing to pretend that it is not a problem,”
“we see your color, but we will try to ignore it,”
“we know your religion, but we we will overlook it and treat you as if you were a valued human being,”
it is not usually a sign of respect.
If disability always must be an incidental characteristic of personhood, why not gender? Would it be somehow more respectful to refer to a person of the female gender or a person of the male gender? Many people can be proud of their gender and feel that is an essential part of their identity.
People need to be respected for who they are not in spite of it. Disability should not be a master status that is always viewed as the most important thing about people regardless of the situation, but it should be given its proper status when it is important.
When it is not relevant, we don’t have to mention it at all. When it is incidental, we should treat it that way and use person-first language emphasizing whatever is more relevant. When disability is relevant, however, person-first language just ignores an important part of some people’s identity. -- Dick Sobsey
Monday, December 3, 2007