Do you say ‘disabled person’ or ‘person with a disability’? Do you say ‘uses a wheelchair’ or ‘in a wheelchair’.
Disability etiquette. It’s one of those things that nobody wants to get wrong and yet on the most part we’re too anxious about causing offence that we don’t ever ask for help.
Even writing this post has been a delicate process. You write each sentence with a finger poised and ready, hovering over the ‘delete’ button.
Sadly, sometimes we let our anxiety over saying the wrong thing stand in the way of talking about disability at all. And in the end – although the wrong term can cause momentary pain or hurt – the real risk is that disability can become increasingly hidden, a forgotten issue.
It’s because of this that the Victorian Government has released a new set of guidelines, which detailing to correct way to refer to people with disabilities.
It’s disability etiquette 101, if you will.
The overarching rule is: use language to focus on the person and not the person and not the disability. So rather than ‘blind person’ go with ‘person who is blind.’ And instead of ‘vegetable,’ say ‘person who is in a coma’. Don’t say ‘disabled toilet,’ say ‘accessible toilet.’
But moving on from the finer points of language there are the bigger issues. Words that have historically been used to describe people with a disability but that have somehow managed to become school yard slang…