Disability, language, and Perspectives

1. Disability, language, and Perspectives January 14, 2008

2. Impairment Impairment: • the loss or reduced function of a particular body part or organ (e.g., a missing limb).

3. Disability • Disability: • when an impairment limits the ability to perform certain tasks' (e.g., to walk, to see, to add a row of numbers) in the same way that most persons do.

4. Handicap • Handicap: • if the disability leads to educational, personal, social, vocational, or other problems. Heward, W. L. (2003). Exceptional Children: An introduction to special education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. P. 10

5. handicapisms Promoting unjust or unequal treatment for individuals with disabilities

6. Person-First language • Put the person before the disability. “Sharon is in Mrs. Gardner’s fifth grade classroom. Sharon has attention deficit disorder.” • Identifying the disability as a characteristic, rather than the whole of a child. “Brett is seven years old and has diabetes.”

7. Examples of handicapisms • Assume that a disability implies handicap • Seeing people with disabilities as victims • Seeing them as brave or valiant • Seeing people with disabilities as afflicted • Avoiding people with disabilities • Speaking about people with disabilities in their presence, rather than to them

8. Other Handicapisms • Gerald is confined to a wheelchair. • Amy is autistic. • Carrie is wheelchair-bound. • I have three Downsies in my class. • She has two wheelchairs and three ED’s in her class. • Todd is the only LD student in Karen's class.

9. …Just A Little Different “Being ‘just a little different’ can indeed be very serious.” (Raymond, p. 7)