Why the use of Language is Important (Series Three)

• The Social Model of Disability
• Contact the Equalities Team

Terminology is important, because words reflect our attitudes and beliefs. However, some of the terms we tend to use may not reflect how some disabled people see themselves. Using the right words matters. This is not about ‘political correctness’ but using wording and language which disabled people and disabled people’s organisations working to promote the social model of disability find acceptable.

Some negative terminology to be avoided includes the following examples

• Afflicted with - This conveys a tragic or negative view about disability
• Suffering from - This confuses disability with illness and also implies that a disability may be a personal burden. Increasingly, disabled people view their disability as a positive rather that negative experience
• The blind - Lumping everyone together in this way is felt by many to take away their individuality. The most appropriate term to use here is ‘people with visual impairments’, or ‘blind people’
• Victim of - This again plays to a sense that disability is somehow a tragedy
• Cripple or crippled by - Use the term ‘the person has ...’
• Wheelchair bound - Disabled people are not tied into their wheelchairs. People are wheelchair users or someone who uses a wheelchair. A wheelchair offers the freedom to move around and is a valuable tool
• Deaf and dumb - This phrase is demeaning and inaccurate. Many deaf people use sign language to communicate and dumb implies that someone is stupid. Use ‘a person with a hearing impairment’, or ‘a deaf person’, or ‘sign language user’
• The disabled - There is no such thing as the disabled.  Use the term ‘disabled people’
• People with disabilities - The term ‘disabled people’ is the preferred term within the social model of disability. ‘People with disabilities’ suggests that the disability ‘belongs’ to the disabled person, rather than ‘disabled person’ which accurately infers that society disables the individual, thus adopting the social model of disability
• Handicapped - This term is inappropriate, with images of begging and disabled people being cap in hand
• Invalid - The term literally means not valid
• Able bodied - The preferred term is ‘non-disabled’. ‘Able -bodied’ suggests that all disabilities are physical and ignores unseen disabilities, and that disabled people are not able

Some phrases are perfectly acceptable. People who use wheelchairs do ‘go for a walk’. It is perfectly acceptable to say to a person with a visual impairment ‘I will see you later’.   Deaf people are unlikely to take offence at ‘Did you hear about...’ Common everyday phrases of this kind are unlikely to cause offence.

‘The first barrier to achieving equality for disabled people is not understanding where the disability comes from’

('A Rose by Any Other Name' Lorraine Gradwell)

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The names we get called - and the status of the people doing the naming - can have an enormous impact on our lives. Mud sticks and if you refer to someone in a particular way for long enough then both the named and the namer come to absorb the underlying message which describes and categorises a person or a group of people.

Disabled people have traditionally been ‘named’ by the medical, welfare and charitable powers and described in terms of what is wrong with disabled people. Many names now viewed as insults are derived from medical terminology - mongol, spastic, cretin, idiot, invalid, handicapped. Simplified examples of removing obvious barriers to disabled people by recognising and valuing difference are:

• Disability is the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a society which takes little or no account of people who have impairments and thus excludes them from mainstream activity
• Impairment is a characteristic, feature or attribute within an individual which is long term and may or may not be the result of disease, injury or congenital condition
• Disabled people are those people with impairments who are disabled by society

This includes physically impaired people, people with visual impairments, deaf people, people who are hard of hearing, people with learning disabilities and people who have or have had mental health needs or mental distress.

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The Social Model of Disability (Series Three)

The social model requires that, instead of grouping disabled people into, for example, deaf people, blind people, wheelchair users and so on, and trying to identify solutions for individuals, we look instead at the common barriers which exclude disabled people from mainstream activities and services.

These barriers can generally be grouped under three main headings:

• Physical - like steps, stairs, inadequate signs, lack of visual fire alarms and so on
• Organisational - the systems and processes that exclude disabled people, policies, procedures and practices, classic example an accessible toilet cluttered with mops and buckets
• Attitudinal - for example the traditional view of disabled people as passive, dependant, needing care, tragic, to be pitied or felt sorry for

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Removing the barriers to disabled people works better by making changes in these three ways:

• It ensures the responsibility remains with all people, non-disabled and disabled, it stops priority being placed with one group of impaired people over another and it recognises and tackles the origins of the oppression
• Negative stereotypes influence service planning and delivery and ensure that disabled people continue to be excluded from mainstream provision
• Definitions underpin our understanding. They reflect our attitudes and beliefs that can either empower or disempower

This will not just happen in everyday social interactions but will also be translated into social policies which will attempt to compensate ‘victims for the tragedies which have befallen them’.

Working for a large organisation, such as a local authority, means we all have responsibility for making those social policies changes, and can be a powerful force in setting standards for the removal of barriers to disabled people.’

In terms of service planning, delivering, monitoring and evaluating services it is essential that we all understand the terminology we use and why we use it.  Impairment neither causes or justifies disability, which, like racism, sexism and homophobia, is discrimination and social oppression.

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Contact

For more information please read the new Disability Access Guide or contact:

Arleen Brown

Equalities and Diversity Team
Haringey Council
7th Floor River Park House
225 High Road
N22 8HQ

Tel: 020 8489 2579

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