disabilities

when writing about disabilities: (1) Mention a disability only when it bears directly on your material. (2) As a general rule, do not define anyone solely in terms of a disability. Speak of the person first, then the disability (instead of "an arthritic," "an epileptic," or "a hemophiliac," use "someone with arthritis," "... epilepsy," "... hemophilia"). Instead of "is diabetic, autistic," use "with/has diabetes, autism." In the same way, people are not their missing part or their surgical procedure. Instead of "amputee" or "ostomate," use "someone who had an amputation or ostomy." Note: Some people with disabilities prefer “identity-first” language, as they “consider their disabilities to be inseparable parts of who they are ”(Syracuse University Disability Cultural Center), but if the preference of the person or group you are writing about is unknown, default to people-first language.(3) An illness is a disease; a disability is a condition. Cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and arthritis, for example, are not diseases; they are conditions. (4) Emphasize abilities, not limitations (instead of "uses crutches/braces," say "walks with crutches/braces"), but not to the point of euphemism, of excessive or patronizing praise, or of portraying some people with disabilities as especially courageous or superhuman as though all people with disabilities should achieve at this level. (5) Do not use adjectives as nouns, as in "the disabled," "the blind," "the deaf." (6) Delete such terms as abnormal; atypical; birth defect (replace with congenital disability, someone born with ...); burden/drain; crippled; defect/defective; deficient; deformed/deformity (orthopedic/physical disability); fit (seizure); gimp; harelip (cleft lip); invalid; lame; learning disabled (someone with/who has a learning disability); maimed; normal; patient (use only for someone in a hospital or under a doctor's immediate care); physical handicap (physical disability); plight; poor; spastic/spaz (someone who has cerebral palsy); stricken with (incurred); stutterer (person with speech impediment); unfit; unfortunate; withered. (7) The adjective is "disability" not "disabled" in such terms as the disability movement, the disability rights movement, disability activists, disability advocates, disability community. (8) Disability is not a fate worse than death; avoid sensationalized words and phrases. Use emotionally neutral descriptions and avoid phrases that conjure up tragedy: suffers from, afflicted with, stricken with, bound, confined, sentenced to, prisoner, victim of, poor, unfortunate. People with disabilities are not a "drain" or a "burden" on family and friends, although they may represent "added/additional responsibilities." (9) Metaphors featuring disabilities ("deaf to our wishes," "blind to the truth") may be inappropriate or unintentionally offensive. (10) In the effort to find language to describe a reality that often had no positive descriptors, some terms have surfaced that tend to be trendy and euphemistic and are better avoided: differently abled, exceptional, handicapable, inconvenienced, mentally different, people with differing abilities, physically challenged. "Granted, some people with disabilities use the phrases.... But those of us who are active in the disability rights movement generally reject these terms as an insulting denial of our life experience, and of our hard-won community identity" (Laura Hershey, RESIST Newsletter). (11) When writing or speaking about people with disabilities avoid portraying them as "other": "I felt permanently exiled from 'normality.' Whether imposed by self or society, this outsider status—and not the disability itself—constitutes the most daunting barrier for most people with physical impairments, because it, even more than flights of steps or elevators without braille, prevents them from participating fully in the ordinary world, where most of life's satisfactions dwell" (Nancy Mairs, Waist-High in the World ). See also able-bodied, adjectival forms as nouns, amputee, bedridden, blind, challenged, confined to a wheelchair, cripple, deaf/Deaf, deaf and dumb/deaf-mute/dumb, defect/defective, developmental disability, epileptic fit, exceptional, handicapism, handicapped, health appliance, idiot/idiocy, insane/insanity, leper/leprosy, lip reading, Mongolism/Mongoloid, paraplegic, people-first language, physically challenged, quadriplegic, retard/retarded, schizophrenic, spastic, special, suffers from (a condition), victim, wheelchair-bound.