Disability Language

Laura: Welcome to Accessibility in 5, a series from UFIT, where we explore a quick tip on making your content more accessible in five minutes or less. I'm Laura, and today's topic is a little bit different from what we usually do. Instead of giving you recommendations about how to make content that you create more accessible, I'm going to discuss the language we use when we talk about disability. Of course, we only have time to just touch on this topic, but I hope that it will make you feel more comfortable having conversations about accessibility needs. 

The first thing to remember is that disability is not a dirty word. Sometimes people can feel uncomfortable talking about it, maybe because it reminds us of the frailty and unpredictability of life. But resorting to euphemisms can end up feeling more dehumanizing than helpful. That's why I encourage you to move away from language like differently abled or special needs. There are people with disabilities often have accommodation needs. Every human has needs that are different. So calling them special needs seems a little unfair and condescending. 

Similarly, I would advise avoiding the word handicapped. If you aren't sure how to move away from phrases like handicapped stall or handicapped parking, you can just substitute the word accessible. As in it's unfair that the accessible entrance to that building is around the back. 

Now that I've told you a couple of examples of what not to say, let's talk about what we do say. But first I need to emphasize that people with disabilities are not a monolith. The language that feels the most comfortable for one person will not be identical to the language that makes another person feel respected. By some estimates, people with disabilities make up 20% of the population. So that's obviously a huge group that will encompass a lot of opinions and preferences. 

The most common language choice here is what I've been using so far in this video, people with disabilities. This is called people first language for obvious reasons. Some people prefer this because it centers their humanity and does not make disability the focus. However, there are plenty of people who do not like people first language for themselves, and instead, prefer what is called identity first language. In this case, the most respectful way to refer to this individual would be as a disabled person. Then there are also people who appreciate switching back and forth. You can extrapolate people first versus identity first language to specific conditions, diagnoses or disabilities by replacing the word disability with a more specific term. 

Some populations tend to prefer one over the other. For example, when is the last time you heard somebody ask to be called a person with blindness? But if somebody asks you to switch, it's important to respect that even if their preference is less common or not what you're used to. There are also some fun specifics to this topic. For example, among people who are deaf or hard of hearing, using a capital D means that somebody is a member of the deaf community, and it comes with a significant amount of cultural context that a lowercase d would not capture. 

So what do you do when you don't know somebody's preference, or when you're talking about people more generally? I tend to default to using people first language, as you can probably tell from this video. I use this as an umbrella term to include both people with disabilities and disabled people. But of course I'm always ready to switch the way I describe somebody, if I learn more about what works best for them. Calling someone whom I know uses identity first language, a person with a disability would actually be disrespectful. And even though I usually default to people first language when I'm talking about the general population and not a specific individual, I might still pepper in some identity first language when I feel that the context calls for it, or even to just avoid repeating myself too much. Sometimes I even say people with disabilities and disabled people, if I feel like it's important to be intentionally inclusive of both groups and acknowledge the difference. 

I hope this makes you feel a little more comfortable talking about disability. So thank you for watching. Accessibility in 5. You can find this video as well as previous ones archived in the Resources section of the CITT website at citt.ufl.edu. Tune in next time to learn about tagging and read order in PDFs.