Words
Positive language empowers. When writing or speaking about people with disabilities, it is important to put the person first. Group designations such as "the blind," "the retarded" or "the disabled" are inappropriate because they do not reflect the individuality, equality or dignity of people with disabilities. Further, words like "normal person" imply that the person with a disability isn't normal, whereas "person without a disability" is descriptive but not negative. The accompanying chart shows examples of positive and negative phrases.
|
Affirmative Phrases |
Negative Phrases |
|---|---|
|
person with an intellectual, cognitive, developmental disability |
retarded; mentally defective |
|
person who is blind, person who is visually impaired |
the blind |
|
person with a disability |
the disabled; handicapped |
|
person who is deaf |
the deaf; deaf and dumb |
|
person who is hard of hearing |
suffers a hearing loss |
|
person who has multiple sclerosis |
afflicted by MS |
|
person with cerebral palsy |
CP victim |
|
person with epilepsy, person with |
epileptic |
|
person who uses a wheelchair |
confined or restricted to a wheelchair |
|
person who has muscular dystrophy |
stricken by MD |
|
person with a physical disability, physically disabled |
crippled; lame; deformed |
|
unable to speak, uses synthetic speech |
dumb; mute |
|
person with psychiatric disability |
crazy; nuts |
|
person who is successful, productive |
has overcome his/her disability; is courageous (when it implies the person has courage because of having a disability) |
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