Ellen: Student/Child/Boy/Girl/Son/Daughter/Man/Woman/PEOPLE with Disabilities

Last week I read two articles in Time and People magazines that referred to individuals with Down syndrome as “Downs,” “Downs syndrome kids,” and even “the disabled.” Say what you will about the quality of my personal magazine subscriptions, but do a search for “the disabled” on the Washington Post or the New York Times Web sites and see how much it pops up. It’s everywhere.

Today, March 3, happens to be the official awareness day of the Special Olympics’ nationwide campaign to discontinue derogatory use of the “r-word” and promote acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities. I encourage all of you to pledge your support at www.r-word.org.

Media outlets have been stepping all over themselves recently trying to report on this campaign, the “Family Guy” vs. Sarah Palin incident, and Rahm Emanuel’s misstep. As tasty as those stories are, I wish journalists would slow down their mouths and fingers long enough to process the actual language they use to describe people with disabilities. While the word “retard” certainly occurs in public discourse much more often than it should, it is indicative of a much larger and more widespread problem.

From a clinical, grammatical standpoint, I understand that terms like “the disabled” fit better in a headline and possibly flow better into a microphone than the sometimes-clunky “people with disabilities.” But it’s the “people with” part that is essential. People with disabilities are not their disability. They are people.

That idea bears repeating. The people part comes first. The creative name we have for that nifty turn of a phrase is called “people-first language.” It’s not a fad, and it’s not about political correctness. It’s about the power of language to shape our fundamental ideas about the rights and values of people.

If you refer to people with disabilities as “the disabled,” you turn them into a collective noun that qualifies them only by one characteristic: their disability. The word “people” is also a collective noun that means any group of human beings. So when you hear or read the word “people,” you have the vastness of humanity from which to pull your initial perception of the subject or object of that sentence. In contrast, when you hear or read “the disabled,” you draw upon not only the innately limited range of characteristics of disabilities possible on Earth, but the even more limiting range of characteristics of disabilities about which you personally know.

Of course, sometimes we don’t want to just say “people” with disabilities; we want to talk about a man with Down syndrome or children with cognitive disabilities or girls with attention deficit disorder. So we do: We just say “girl” or “boy” or “man” or any one of the many nouns at our disposal and we say it first. We use that noun, the noun that refers to the person, first.

It may sound simplistic or condescending or like we’re thinking too hard about it – and perhaps I am preaching to the choir here – but language is powerful. Disabilities are characteristics of people. Those characteristics do not, in and of themselves, define people. Until American education and public perception and cultural identification catch up to that idea en masse, we need to be bombarded with the “people first” message. 

As small as it is, and as awkward as it can sound, and as worked up as we may get over it, putting the person first does make a difference. People with and without disabilities are readers and listeners and viewers of an incredible amount of content, especially with the many media sources we have access to these days. We will all read about and hear of and see people first. Even if the detail of their disability comes two words later, it still comes later.

It isn’t about political correctness. It’s about the other r-word: respect.

 

Comments

[replica watches]

So coincidentally, I am to write an article about the subject that you are talking about. I think you really have a wonderful point and the information you have provided has indeed helped me a lot. I really needed this, thanks so much for posting!

[toni]

I am a special ed. teacher for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. I really appreciated this blog. I am currently working on a project to try and change some of the stereotypes and negative associations with emotionally challenged children. I feel that they are often the recipients of prejudices, such as the "R" word, as you mentioned. I think it is very important that we teach children that words like these are wrong and hurtful.

[Joey]

Ellen,

I fully support your stance. I work in Special Education and I witness everyday exactly what you are discussing. So many people in my school system and surrounding school systems constantly characterize and identify students according to their disability. They seem to lose all focus of the person and instead focus soley on the disability. If they are not referred to in that manner, then often times they are referred to as those students or your students. It is a very disturbing trend and I hope to see a turn in this trend very soon. I wish more people would realize that a person should not be characterized by a disability. An individual, about all, is still a person and nothing should ever come before that.

[marie]

I agree that we should stop saying the "r-word", I find it very offensive when I hear it. I am a Special Education teacher and I think that plays a role of why this is so important to me. I hate when I hear students call each other a "retard". I honestly think they have no idea what that word means sometimes. I find myself educating them on why we don't say things like that, and why it was wrong to say. I wish I knew more about the Special Olympics campaign, I would have loved to become involved.

[Cheryl]

Ellen,
As a child growing up, I can remember saying your retarded to a friend who was being silly. As I have grown up and matured since then,I have tried to teach my daughters and their friends that it is not nice to say that or call anyone that. I tell them that is hurts peoples feelings. I also remember when you would see a person with a disablity out and people would whisper and downs were called mogoloids (you can tell my age). Thank goodness those days are gone. They are pretty much excepted now but you still have some of those people who don't excepted them. Some mean it nasty and others don't even realize how it sounds. We as a race really need to start thinking about what comes out of our mouths before it does come out. We don't like people calling us names or making fun or us and neither do people with a disablity. We are are people and we all have to put our pants on the same way as everyone else. But as far as I am concerned, we all have a disability in some way or another.

[Peggy]

Ellen,
You are so right about putting the person first then the disability. I have been teaching special ed for awhile, and the longer I am in the field, the more I notice people who put the disability first instead of the person. I hate to see people on the news also put the disability first before the child. I coach special olympics and am all for the cause of eliminating the r word.
Peggy

[melissa]

I am a Walden University Grad student studying Special Education. I agree with you 100%. I find so often that we refer to the students with special needs as “those student” Or “you know them, those in that special room”. I think we often try to forget about, or disregarded the students that need our help the most. I love that you have started a campaign to stop using the r-word to refer to children with disabilities. The project you are working on is great and I would love to be a part of it. Please feel free to contact me I would love to be a part of this wonderful cause to end the negative connotation that goes with children with learning and mental disabilities.

Melissa.Fox@waldenu.edu

[potenta]

"A great video about the r-word in our media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrhPw19Eh2o"

thanks. Jessie please put this link somewhere in your website

[Ellen]

Hi Jessie--

I haven't forgotten about you! Just getting around to emailing you as soon as I can.

I'm glad you're another one of the mighty few who have taken up working with kids with intellectual disabilities.

The program I volunteered with is called Crosscultural Solutions and you can check them out at http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/

I'll email you with more about my experiences in Lima and some of the other opportunities out there to work with/volunteer with people with intellectual disabilities.

Thanks for your comment!

Ellen

[Jessie Kotler]

Hi Ellen,
Firstly, I completely agree with your latest blog entry, and it's inspiring to see your involvement.I was just reading your bio, and we have a lot in common. I too love working with individuals with intellectual disabilities. I just finished a masters in Special Education in New York, and would be interested to do something like you did in Lima. I was wondering where you found that opportunity? or if you know other ways to find work or volunteer opportunities to work with those with intellectual disabilities. I would be ever so grateful for any suggestions you have.

Best,

Jessie
(feel free to email jessiekotler@gmail.com)

[Ellen Fulco]

A great video about the r-word in our media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrhPw19Eh2o

[Judy]

Amen!

[Ellen Fulco]

Even in a great article about Helen Keller...the last two words are "the disabled."

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history