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Language Speaks Loudly!
PERSON FIRST LANGUAGE
Every person is a combination
of many characteristics and would identify some of those characteristics as
"strengths" and others as "weaknesses."
Most people do not describe themselves in terms of a specific
characteristic because no single characteristic could completely describe an
individual.
For example, we do not go
around introducing ourselves by saying "I am Mary White, an average
intelligence person." And,
even if Mary White was introduced to us in that way, what would we really know
about Mary White? Would we know
what she liked to do, what she was "good" at, what made her happy or
sad, where she worked or how she got along with others?
The same courtesy and respect
have not been extended to people with developmental disabilities or other
handicapping conditions. They have
been introduced and described as a "developmentally delayed girl" or a
"handicapped boy." Listeners
have made great assumptions based on this description and somehow the
individuality of people with special needs has been diminished.
EMPHASIZE
THE PERSON,
NOT THE DISABILITY!
For
example . . .
A person with cerebral palsy is not a cerebral palsied person.
A person with autism is not a person who is autistic.
A person with mental retardation is not retarded.
A person who cannot speak is not a deaf/mute.
A person who uses a wheelchair is not confined to a wheel chair.
A person who has Down Syndrome is not afflicted with Down Syndrome.
This information may be reproduced but not altered in any way. Excerpted from
the training curriculum,
"Working with Families with Children/Parents with Developmental
Disabilities". Developed by
Virginia Cruz, D.S.W., The Social Work Program, Metropolitan State College of
Denver,
PO Box 173362, Campus Box 70, Denver, Colorado, 80217. E-mail: Info@DevelopmentalDisability.org
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