How to talk about Disabilities
Interested in learning more about how to talk about disabilities? NPR's LIFE KIT has a great piece with guest Emily Ladau called "Don't be scared to talk about disabilities Here's what to know and what to say."
The full transcript of the LIFE KIT podcast is available on the NPR website.
"...the truth is that language is one of the most important signals that we have to demonstrate our acceptance and/or rejection of a person's identity. So I am a big proponent of not shying away from the term disability because why do we need to dance around or avoid a term? Terms like special needs and differently abled don't really make sense to me because why are my needs special? Every human being has needs"
Emily Ladau
What words to use
- There is no need to dance around it - you can use the term disability when talking about a disability.
- If you are writing a story about someone with a disability, ask what their preference is for naming their disability - some people may want to use ideintity-first language (i.e. Autistic person).
- If you don't know, default to using people-first language when communicating about people with disabilities. For example, use the phrase "student who is blind", "they are a wheelchair user", or "a person with autism."
- Avoid using negative phrases such as suffers, afflicted, stricken, victim, etc.
- "Special Education" and "Exceptionalities" are still used heavily in school systems. Avoid these phrases where possible, but can be used when they are the most descriptive. For example: "He teaches special education classes."
- Avoid language that implies negative stereotypes. Instead of saying "normal person" or "healthy person" if comparing in a story, say "person without a disability."
Storytelling around Disability
Stella Young's TEDxSydney "I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much" talk was a viral sensation nearly a decade ago and continues to be a funny but poignant look at the way our society views people with disabilities as objects of inspiration.
Stella Young was an Australian disability activist, comedian, journalist, and teacher.
The full transcript of Stella Young's "I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much" talk is available on the TEDx Website
So what do we take from Stella Young's video? People with disabilities don't exist to be inspirational to non-disabled people. When we write about people with disabilities, the disability doesn't need to be the story, and we don't have to frame the story as inspirational.
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Disability in the media
Think of the portrayals you've seen of disability in the media - how many of them are positive?
In the 1990s, Clogston categorized media portrayal of disability (looking at coverage in newspapers) into three categories:
- Medical Model - emphasizes that disability is the result of disease or injury and those with disabilities are expected to cure themselves of their disability. "...An underlying assumption in the medical model is that people with disabilities—particularly those who cannot be cured—are deficient and should be pitied. (Holcomb 2022)." Holcomb discusses the medical model being prominent in Zootopia (2016) when the "savage" predators are cured of their mental illness.
- Supercrip model - "highlights extraordinary abilities and celebrates people with disabilities who "overcome" their disability to live a normal life despite their disability." For example, Holcomb references Dory in Finding Dory is able to overcome her disability and find her parents by the end of the film.
- Social Pathology model - this model ends up portraying people as dependent on other people - caretakers or society. For example, in the beginning of Finding Dory, Dory is treated as an inconvenience because she might wander off due to her memory.
The medical model emphasizes that disability is the result of disease or injury. Under this model, those with disabilities are expected to seek out medical interventions to cure themselves of their disability (Gilson & Depoy, 2000). An underlying assumption in the medical model is that people with disabilities—particularly those who cannot be cured—are deficient and should be pitied.
How do we get past the stereotype?
We tell stories. We don't tokenize. We avoid creating stories that only serve to be inspirational when they don't need to be. The United States CDC frames it as "Do not portray people with disabilities as inspirational only because of their disability."
There are many ways to tell disability stories without framing them in the way the media typically does. Our own Patty Douglas does multimedia story-making projects with people with different kinds of disabilities. Participants in her groups tell their own stories with the goal of transforming deficit understandings. Raya Shield's 'Untitled' video lets Raya tell their own story in a very moving way. Raya's video is from the Re*Storying Autism 'in' Difference Video Exhibit
So how do we tell disability stories?
We know the history of disability stories and the way that they have been told and we try to make sure that we are telling stories outside of these tropes.
Let the subject of the story be as involved as they can in the process. Help them tell their story in the way they want it told.