[nabs-l] Disability Language

[Caitlin Best]

I work for the army and the equal opportunity office for roughly 5 years, so I had a great deal of death employees come into my office. Most deaf people are very proud of their culture and their community and you don't even consider themselves to have a disability. They do preferred to use a D – a D to describe themselves. Also, using hearing impairment is very disrespectful. Most preferred to use hard of hearing or simply death because that is how they see themselves. 

As for other disability language, I would just rolled with whatever the person or people are comfortable with.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 25, 2015, at 13:50, Karl Martin Adam via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Justin, the idea that you know better what someone should be called than they do themselves seems awfully patronizing.  Isn't that sort of idea that others know how we should live our lives better than we do a large part of what we in the NFB and other disability rights organizations spend our time fighting.  Also I happen to know that there are a lot of deaf people who consider themselves Deaf with a capital d and are very proud of their culture.  Calling them "persons with hearing impairments" or something similar is extremely disrespectful.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date sent: Sat, 25 Jul 2015 13:04:08 -0400
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Disability Language
> 
> While operating in the field, I am careful to set the best example for my
> consumer. Often times, consumers use names such as physically disabled, or
> deaf, or something such as that.  They use the terminology given to them by
> those who while well meaning, are not in touch with the day to day maneusha
> which goes along with having a disability.  I am careful to usualy stay in
> the professional guidelines unless doing so will cause undo stress.  I've
> noticed that when I use person first language, the consumer becomes more
> empowered and is more inclined to take control of their life.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
> Silverman via nabs-l
> Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2015 12:57 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com
> Subject: [nabs-l] Disability Language
> 
> 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
> 
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