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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