Thank you all for the information and personal perspective. It's been very
helpful. I will save this so that I can refer to it and pass it on to
others as needed.
-Karen
McCandlish
Monroe
Community College
Leroy V Good
Library
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Perlow [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 3:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Saying it right - positively
Dear Accessibility Advocates:
Re language:
1. Bravo, Audrey Gorman, Accessibility Advocate
Extraordinaire!
2. My rule of thumb: Say it POSITIVELY. Positive language
sells. Positive
Language Wins. Every Time (with gratitude to Madison Avenue
for pointing this
out). Positive descriptors can help all of us develop
positive self images and
positive (=healthy) attitudes toward life. As Audrey Gorman
already has pointed
out: PEOPLE first language. Always. We are all PEOPLE
First. I much prefer
"people" to "persons."
3. I realize that when we have to talk and write "legal," we
must use certain
terms. But otherwise, let us try to increasingly adopt
positive language, which
some day may be adopted also as legal terminology.
4. How about ...
Accessibility Policies Accessibility is a universal need to
which everyone can
relate (Are the streets still accessible today in snowbound
NYC?)
People with Learning Differences
- See for instance, See: http://www.hellofriend.org/
People with Cognitive Differences (instead of MR)
People with Hearing Differences
People with Vision Differences
etc.
Why Differences? Differences is positive and indicates
accurately that our
abilities as human beings are on a continuum, rather than
incorrectly being
viewed as absolutes.
The diversity of doing things differently is universal. As
human beings we all
share doing things differently and having different
abilities and strengths,
None of us are perfect (If there is a perfect individual out
there, please tell
us all how you did it). So in reality we all are members of
the class.
Why I coined the terms differabilities and PEOPLE with
differabilities. We all
have differabilities.
So let's celebrate our differences, our differabilities, and
doing things
differently.
Why bother with changing the language to positive language?
1) It has nothing to do with being PC. It has everything to
do with behaving
toward others and describing other human beings with the
respect, dignity, and
positive attitudes that we ourselves as individuals each
would want to be
accorded.
2) A test: Would you yourself want to be labeled and thought
of in the terms
you are using to describe another individual? For tomorrow,
even this
afternoon, it may be you who joins the crowd and faces those
same labels.
For those of you on the East Coast, please watch yourselves
on the ice!
3) Look in the dictionary. The prefix "dis" means "not." The
term "disabled"
means by dictionary definition "inoperable, incapable,
non-functioning, can't
do." So it appropriately is used to describe inanimate
objects like smoke
detectors, car batteries, and Java Script, etc. that do not
work, that will not
function, inanimate items that we usually relegate to the
trash heap.
Thus the term is not appropriate to use to describe people.
We as human beings
are not "incapacitated" until we are dead. And then we
should not assume ..
who knows what happens?
4) Unfortunately, there is a plethora of negative terms in
our everyday
language that we commonly use to describe people who do
things differently:
Terms like "impaired, handicap, disorder, dysfunction,
limited, retarded, etc.,
etc. (See:
http://twu.edu/~s_perlow/alise2001.html#sayitright )
And the point of being negative is ...?
Perhaps out of necessity, people with
differences/differabilities compensate
and build on their strengths and develop extraordinary
skills that far surpass
the skills that people who take their abilities for granted
develop. We should
be celebrating such extraordinary skills and doing things
differently!
Personally, I have found my particular mobility
difference/differability to be
a blessing. It has taught me how to compensate and find
alternate ways of
doing things, skills that we all need in this experience we
all are living
called life.
Ellen Perlow
Chair, ALA ASCLA Century Scholarship Committee
The ALA ASCLA Century Scholarship Diversity Initiative
"Celebrating a New Century that Celebrates Diversity"
http://www.ala.org/ascla/centuryscholarship.html
Annual Submission Deadline: March 1
ALA 2001 Scholarship Application page:
http://www.ala.org/work/awards/scholars.html
Have YOU recruited/applied to be a Century Scholarship
applicant today?
----------------------------------------------------
Manager of Information Services
School of Library and Information Studies
Texas Woman's University
P.O. Box 425438
Denton, TX 76204-5438
Tel.: 940-898-2622 Fax: 940-898-2611
Web: http://twu.edu/~s_perlow/
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
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