Be careful - Mind your language!

Have you ever felt that there are times when you don't know what to say to a disabled person? I have found that people really struggle to talk about disability and I always wondered the reasons behind this, because it is not if disabled people are different, it is just they see the world in a different way. 

I think that there may be a variety of reasons in which society says disability as a taboo subject. The first one is the fact that we don't educate our young people about disabled people in history. This has recently been highlighted by an article published in the Guardian. It talks about the fact that even though teachers teach about holocaust in order to reduce to religious discrimination and the slave trade in order to reduce racial discrimination (1). What about disabled people? Shouldn't we teach about the treatment of disabled people in history in order to reduce disability discrimination? I think we should especially when it has been reported that 83% of children with learning disabilities have reported being bullied (2). 

The article by the Guardian also talks about the fact that disabled people have played a significant role within  society and they are part of the reason society is like it is today. I bet you have all seen the film, the King's speech. Well did you know that it was about King George VI who had a stammer and this was Queen Elizabeth II's father. (If you want to know more about the plot I would suggest either buying it on DVD or look at the summary by clicking summary for the wiki summary) Imagine if he had hidden away and didn't overcome his stammer. Would Queen Elizabeth II actually exist? The article also talks about the T4 category in which disabled people were sent to the gas chamber. There are many examples in the article if you are interested in the article see the link at the bottom of this post. I think it is really inspiring to see disabled people showing how we see the world because we don't judge you for not having a disability so do people judge us.  

Another reason in which I think that disability is a taboo subject is due to the fact the way in which it is seen or not seen in the media. From my own experience I think that it is through people trying to say the right thing but actually they are oppressing the disability even further. I think that this come what I talked about the lack of education about disability. I think it stems from a society in which we have to be politically correct in order to reduce offending people. Political correctness is not just associated with disability. It is associated with other vulnerable groups maybe the elderly or people from a different heritage. However, what I am trying to say is there are times when people are trying not to offend people when in actual fact they are oppressing that minority of people (3) 

I guess my point to this post is that language is becoming such a focal point to talk about minorities why don't you ask disabled people themselves in how they want to represented. As a disabled person myself, I think ask me and I will tell you rather than you guess. Also I think another point to my post is that talk about disabled people because we are not different we just see the world in which we all live in a different way.

PS - if you ever see a term which you don't understand I have made the word a link to a definition on the other side. Hope this helps. If this is not enough or you have questions you want to ask me please don't hesitate to contact me at rowlingno1fan@gmail.com 

Links  

(1) Ismail, S (2012) Why disability history should be on the school curriculum [online] http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2012/sep/26/disability-history-school-curriculum (accessed: 20th February 2014) 

(2) Lipsett, A (2007) Eight of out 10 disabled children bullied, report finds [online] http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/jun/18/schools.children (accessed: 15th February 2014) 

(3) Barnes, C (1993) Political Correctness, Language and Rights [online]  http://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/files/library/Barnes-Correct.pdf (accessed: 18th February 2014)