[Nfbk] Person first language article

[kayla.penny at louisville.edu]

Hi everyone,

There's an interesting article floating around Facebook right now about Person First Language (PFL) that I thought some of you might want to take a look at.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the term, PFL is basically a way of wording things (person with a disability, instead of disabled person) that some "experts" view as less offensive.

The article argues that many that are disabled would actually prefer identity first language (blind person, instead of person who is blind) as opposed to person first language.   IFL takes away the stigma that might be associated with having any particular disability.

Anecdotally, I can say there's been some progress with this in terms of blindness.  My textbook for my special education class said you should use PFL language unless you were speaking about someone that is blind.

What thoughts does everyone else have on this topic?

The article can be found at http://www.thinkinclusive.us/why-person-first-language-doesnt-always-put-the-person-first/ .

Katie

Sent from my iPhone
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20150801/7d7ef8a8/attachment.html>