Do
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Put people first, not their disability.
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Emphasize abilities, not limitations…
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Show people with disabilities as active participants…
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Be supportive, but not overly solicitous
Do Not
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Use generic labels for disability groups
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Focus on the disability—focus, instead, on the issues
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Refer to people with disabilities as patients or "cases"
Preferred Language
People with disabilities:
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prefer to be called "people with disabilities," not "disabled people"
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are not conditions or diseases; they are individuals first and only secondarily do they have one or more disabling conditions.
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Acceptable/Preferred Terms
Person/persons with a disability
People with cerebral palsy, people with a spinal cord injury, muscular dystrophy, etc.
Deafness/hearing impairment "Deafness" refers to a person who has partial loss of hearing within a range of mild to severe.
Person with a speech disorder, or person without speech.
Person who has a mental or psychiatric disability, or emotional disorder.
Person who has a mental or developmental disability.
Uses a wheelchair or crutches; a wheelchair user; walks with crutches
Stroke/Cancer survivor
People who do not have a disability; non-disabled
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Unacceptable Terms
Handicap, handicapped person
Cerebral palsied, spinal cord injured people, etc. Never identify people solely by their disability.
Deaf and dumb--is as bad as it sounds. Inability to hear or speak does not suggest less intelligence.
Dumb [see above]; mute
Psycho, nut, lunatic, crazy, schizo, psychiatric, schizophrenic
Retarded
Confined/Restricted to a wheelchair, wheelchair bound. Most people who use a wheelchair or mobility devices do not regard them as confining
Stroke/Cancer Victim
People who do not have a disability - Normal--When in use as the opposite of "disabled," implies the person with a disability is abnormal. Also inappropriate are "able-bodied" "healthy" or "whole."
Adapted from Oklahoma Disability Etiquette Handbook, from the Office of Handicapped Concerns, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1993 and Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities, University of Kansas -Research and Training center on Independent Living, 1996)