As educators, we’re consistently utilizing language and communication to show and inform our college students. The particular phrases we select to make use of carry which means and connotations based mostly on their etymology, the historical past of these phrases, and our present cultural and political contexts. Our college students will even be taught the phrases we use and repeat them at college, at residence, and locally. Thus, it’s vital to look at the phrases we use and the impression they will have on others, particularly children with disabilities.
Beneath are some frequent phrases to switch in your vocabulary and why it is best to.
1. “Particular wants”
The time period “particular wants” is used pervasively in our subject to consult with college students with disabilities. Nonetheless, this time period is extremely ableist (discriminative or prejudiced towards people with disabilities). It communicates that people who profit from varied help wants are someway “particular” or “totally different” from the “common.” Each particular person human being has totally different wants and advantages from totally different helps. Moreover, our help wants change over time and even from everyday. For those who didn’t sleep nicely, it’s possible you’ll want extra visible reminders the following day to recollect your duties. There’s nothing “particular” about benefiting from totally different helps all through our lives in an effort to have our wants met. So as an alternative of utilizing “particular wants,” we are able to use “college students with disabilities” or specify distinct help wants, comparable to “college students who profit from communication help.”
2. “Handicapped”
This time period is ceaselessly used to consult with people with disabilities. The time period is usually utilized in phrases comparable to “handicapped parking” or “scholar with a handicap.” Nonetheless, it’s only a euphemism. By making an attempt to keep away from utilizing the phrase incapacity, we’re unintentionally speaking that there’s something inherently mistaken with incapacity. As an alternative of utilizing handicapped, you’ll be able to say “parking for people with disabilities” or “scholar with a incapacity.”
3. “Functioning” labels (“low-functioning”/”high-functioning”)
We regularly see “functioning” labels when referring to scholar efficiency inside IEPs and different documentation. As a instructor, I ceaselessly heard different academics consult with their college students as having “high-functioning ADHD” or “low-functioning autism.” These labels are extremely problematic as they qualify people’ help wants towards a nonexistent “norm.” Moderately than utilizing functioning labels, you’ll be able to describe particular help wants that profit the scholar, comparable to “a scholar who advantages from assist with private hygiene routines.”
4. “Wheelchair-bound”/”confined to a wheelchair”
These phrases are ceaselessly used to explain college students with bodily or motor disabilities. Nonetheless, they convey ableism by relaying that people are constrained by mobility gadgets. Nonetheless, wheelchairs and different mobility gadgets truly present people with bodily and motor disabilities extra freedom and independence. As an alternative of those phrases, you need to use “wheelchair person” or “scholar who makes use of a wheelchair.”
5. “Sufferer of”/”suffers from incapacity”
This language infers that incapacity is a detrimental expertise. As an alternative, incapacity is part of the human expertise. Incapacity is range and is widely known and embraced by these within the incapacity neighborhood. You need to use “experiences X incapacity” to get rid of the judgment about incapacity that’s constructed into the 2 phrases above.
These are just some examples of phrases that contribute to ableism. Incapacity rights activist Lydia X.Z. Brown has curated a extra complete listing of ableist phrases to get rid of out of your vocabulary. Our language has the ability to affect how college students view themselves and their disabilities and the way allies view incapacity. It’s vital to consider the phrases we train our college students and the way these phrases will impression them long-term. For extra detailed info on language suggestions, evaluation the Incapacity-Inclusive Communication Pointers developed by the United Nations.
