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Handout 7: Choosing Words with Dignity*

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* Adapted with permission from Developmental Disabilities Council. Choosing Words with Dignity. Concord, N.H.: Developmental Disabilities Council.

Choose Words with Dignity

People with disabilities, like other minority groups, want to be accepted in their communities as equals with other citizens.

What you write and what you say can enhance the dignity of people with disabilities and can promote positive attitudes about their abilities.

Let your descriptive words emphasize a person's worth and abilities, not the disabling condition. Refer to the person first rather than the disability. The phrase "people with disabilities" is preferred, for instance, to "the disabled."

Use Positive Images and Graphics
In printed communications, watch out for stereotypes in graphics and pictures. A cartoon of a person who is visually impaired being directed to the wrong door by a sighted person promotes negative attitudes. A picture of a person seated in a wheelchair at a computer console emphasizes ability.

Speaking with People with Disabilities

• When you speak to a person with a disability,, remember that he or she is a person first who also happens to have a disability. If you need information about the disability, don't hesitate to ask the person about it directly.
  
• Ask if assistance is needed rather than assuming it is. Then follow the instructions of the individual to avoid possible injury to the person or yourself.
  
• Don't assume that a person with one disability also has others.
  
• Maintain eye contact and talk to the person even if he or she is using an interpreter.
  
• When speaking with a person who has a speech impairment or uses an augmentative communication system, be patient and give the person time to respond to your question. Don't try to finish a sentence for the person. If you don't understand what the individual has said, say so and ask him or her to repeat the statement or say it another way.
  
• Use a normal tone of voice. Speaking loudly causes pain for some people.
  
• Do not lean on a person's wheelchair or distract a working animal. Don't "play" with assistive equipment.
  
• Don't hesitate to use everyday expressions. It's fine to say "See you later" to a person who is visually impaired, or "Let's take a walk" to a person using a wheelchair.
  

This page presents suggestions for language preferred by people with disabilities. Not only is equality everyone's civil right, using appropriate language is common courtesy.

Use Affirmative Phrases	Don't Use Negative Terms
YES!	NO!
people with disabilities	the handicapped; the disabled
person who is blind; person who is visually impaired	the blind
person who is deaf; person who is hard of hearing	suffers from a hearing impairment
person who has multiple sclerosis	afflicted with MS
person with cerebral palsy	CP victim
person with mental retardation	retarded; mentally defective
person who uses a wheelchair	confined to a wheelchair; wheelchair bound
person without disabilities	normal person (implies person with a disability isn't normal)
unable to speak; person who is nonverbal	dumb; mute
seizure	fit
successful; productive	courageous (implies the person is a hero or martyr)

Do not use words or phrases like cripple, lame, vegetable, retard, he's mental, those children.