[nabs-l] Disability Language

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Kaiti and all. I read an article recently about disability language
which was published in the journal American Psychologist and authored
by Dana Dunn, a prominent disability psychologist. Basically, the
article described how language preferences are changing. As others
have pointed out, there is a lot of debate about whether to use
person-first ("person who is blind") or identity-first ("blind
person"). What Dr. Dunn recommends is that clinicians should simply
ask clients what term they prefer and use those terms (honoring
different clients with different terms, if necessary). So you would
not automatically need to call your client a person with a disability
unless he/she explicitly prefers that language. I have noticed that
the vast majority of people I meet/exchange emails with who have
autism want to be called "autistic people" and the only people I know
who use the term "people with autism" are non-autistic people. So, I
regularly use the term "autistic person" because that seems to be the
majority preference for those who are actually part of that group. If
a particular autistic person or family objects, then I will switch to
their term of choice. I also use the term "blind person" to describe
myself and others in the blindness community. When I talk to parents
of blind children, I try to listen to their terms and follow their
language (even if it's "visually impaired"). I think honoring language
and building common language is a part of building rapport and trust
with others.
Arielle