Individuals living with disabilities don’t always agree about how to talk about disability. But it’s important to recognize that language matters.
Take, for example, the word “disability.” While some people prefer person-first language like “person with a disability,” others are more comfortable with identity-first language like “disabled person.” The best way to know what terminology is preferable is by asking the individual how they wish to be described.
Unfortunately, many people outside the disability community worry that “disability” is a pejorative term and wonder how to use it without offending anyone.
A new public service campaign in Michigan aims to change that perception.
The campaign, created by Disability Network Southwest Michigan (DNSM) and funded by local advertising agency Adams Outdoor Advertising, features huge billboards in the Kalamazoo area that read “#DWord.”
People who pause to read the rest of the billboard text are directed to the campaign website DWordPride.org, where they can learn more about the campaign and DNSM, a nonprofit run by people with and without disabilities working to advance “justice, access and inclusion for the Disability Community.”
According to the website, the #DWord campaign seeks to destigmatize the way the word disability is viewed in our society: “Instead of avoiding the word with euphemisms like special needs, handicapable, or differently-abled, simply use the word disability.”
Disability is a “natural part of the human condition,” say campaign creators. “Having a disability isn’t inherently good or bad; it just is. Like being female, or short, or Latino, or gay, or left-handed, disability is simply a characteristic. It is society who decides what characteristics are desirable and which ones are less so.”
So, how do we change our society and the commonly held assumption that disability is inherently negative? The DWord Pride website says we can do so by “recognizing and celebrating the unique identities, cultures, and experiences of disabled people and rejecting society’s notion that disability is somehow bad. By embracing disability pride, we build stronger communities and a movement of inclusion and acceptance for all.”
People with disabilities are encouraged to join the disability pride movement by posting on DWord Pride’s Instagram and Facebook pages or on their own social media platforms using #DWORD or #DWORDPRIDE.
