If you’ve followed social movements in the last decade or two, you’re probably aware of how language and words have been examined for their power to be exclusive, or ideally, inclusive. In the disability rights movement, one such battle is over the use of ‘disabled’ or ‘disabled person’ versus ‘person with a disability.’ The first places the disability paramount, while the second does not (instead, identifying the ‘personhood’ first).
I always preferred to be described as a ‘person with a disability.’ Why? Because that has always been how I have wanted the world to see me, as a person, as more than just my disability.
There is importance in the words used to describe disabled people, and the words we use to describe ourselves.
The term 'disabled people' is still preferred by some people who want to highlight the challenges and barriers that the disabled face. For those that ascribe to this social model of disability, the 'disability' is paramount and caused by barriers put in place by society.
Society has generally seen being disabled as a negative thing. The lives of the disabled are, at best, difficult and unfair, and at worst, worth less than the lives of the non-disabled, or even not worth living. If a person becomes disabled later in life, mainstream society has taught us to believe that their life is going to change in a very negative way.
I have realized that my disability is a very important part of my personal identity. I would love to fully reclaim the phrase 'disabled person.' Like those that adhere to the social model of disability, I understand that society is primarily to blame for my desire to describe myself as a person with a disability. However, until society accepts two simple facts that disabled people have always known—the fact that we are human, too, and the fact that our lives are not negative—I doubt that I will be able to fully let go of my preference for being called ‘a person with a disability.’
If people are going to be born with, or acquire, impairments, they should be entitled to the same social opportunities as everyone else, including the right to disability pride. Since impairments are always going to be a part of life, it’s necessary to build a disability-inclusive society with a sense of belonging for all.
