At the end of my last post, which was about Love, I mentioned the TV programme Undateables and how unhelpful such negative language can be. I think the worse was the title of the TV series which aired at the end of last year,’CripTales’ (a programme which I would not recommend that you watch!) It is such a shame that the media seems to believe that they need to use controversial language to get people to watch these programmes. That said however, the BBC did get it right with the series named ‘Employable Me’ which showed people with physical disabilities getting meaningful employment. When I was looking for a job, quite a few years ago now, I remember receiving a magazine for disabled people called ‘Ready, Willing and Able’ the fact that I remember the title shows how positive I found it.
For me, the worse word which people can use to refer to me is handicapped. When I discovered the history of this word, referring to disabled people needing to go ‘Cap in Hand’ in order to get money, as they were not able to work, my dislike of this word grew even more. If I hear the word handicapped then the person who used that word will definitely be hearing my views on it! I remember a friend saying to me that I best not go to America as this is the word for disability, which they use the most. I found this very surprising as America is often seen as being more advanced than England. A phrase which I also hate is ‘The Disabled’ which to me suggests the all disabled people are grouped together like a herd of sheep. Every person who has a disability is unique. ‘Disabled People’ or ‘People With Disabilities’ is therefore the preferred wording to use. When I was thinking of some of the ideas which I was hoping to share in this post I started thinking about the term ‘Disabled Community’ and I think this is acceptable as it is a mush softer phrase than ‘The Disabled’ and from my experiences of going on holiday with other disabled people, it does feel like a community as we have so much in common with each other.
My friend and I recently had a conversation over the word Carer and the now more widely used term PA (Personal Assistant.) The fact that we both have a speech impediment means that we find the word Carer easier to say and it doesn’t get confused with the business world, but the word carer is negative in itself. For me the word implies that you need a huge amount of care which although some disabled people do need, others like my friend and I do not need this level of care, we just need a bit more support. I therefore think ‘Enabler’ would be a more appropriate word to use.
Language is very much a matter of personal choice, the very word Disabled or Disability can be questioned by some people as it focuses on the negatives. Even how you write the word can help by using a capital ‘A’ in the word – DisAbled. I do suspect that in years to come, language will become more and more positive. I have certainly already found this in my life time, when I was a toddler I used to go to what was then called The Spastic Centre and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid at the word Spastic. Whereas when I recently told someone that I went to the Spastic Centre they shuddered at the sound of that word. As most of you will know Scope used to be called the Spastics Society until it was renamed in 1994.
When I was reading about Reasonable Adjustments, for my work, I got the feeling that this term, Reasonable Adjustments, may also be phased out in time. I found that one company referred to them as Workplace Adjustments which definitely sounds more positive showing that it is not just about doing the bare minimum to support disabled people.
This post has been more informative so very little room which to add humour to it but I will end with a slightly humorous story. When I was crossing the road once, I saw a sign which said ‘Be Careful How You Cross – don’t be a Statistic.’ When I became annoyed and upset my parents asked me what had annoyed me so much and I realised that I had totally misread the sign and instead of reading the word ‘Statistic’ and read the word ‘Spastic’, I obviously needed reading glasses!
Be Aware Be Clear 