Life
Being part of the disabled community in the U.S. under Donald Trump is hardly a picnic. Between being openly mocked on the campaign trail, worries about rights rollbacks, and serious attempts to cut disability benefits, it's a hard time full of big questions. When the problems facing the disabled community are so material, it may seem inconsequential to have a conversation about words, but a debate about how we talk about disabilities, and how disabled people talk about themselves, has been going on for decades, and it's especially important now, with disability rights at risk, to make sure we're all on the same page. A growing number of people in the disabled community are using identity-first language, and this is how to figure out if you should be using it, too.
The basic argument is between person-first language, which is a somewhat older mode of talking about disability, and identity-first language, which is newer. The difference is: should someone with a disability be called "a disabled person", or "a person with a disability?" You may think this is just semantic quibbling, but it's got big implications and can spark vigorous debate and divisions. Words, as any person who's ever been harassed, bullied, or stuck with a hurtful label can attest, have power, not only personally but politically. And understanding the debate and the people on either side can give a lot of insight into what it means to be disabled — a point of view that, in today's America, needs to be given more visibility.
Why The Language That We Use Matters
The fact that the debate so often centers around intellectual disability isn't accidental. The relationship between a disability and the person who lives with it comes into greater relief when it's a part of their mental outlook and their brain's ability to understand the world. The brain is, for many people, the center of an individual's personhood and identity (though in reality we're an intricate physical being of complicated, interdependent biology rather than just a brain moving around in a vehicle). But the issue also arises across many other disabilities, with the ultimate question being asked: does a disability define you, and if so, is that a bad thing?
For advocates of identity-first language, talking about being a "disabled person" is fundamentally empowering because it acknowledges that their disability is vital to their position in the world and who they are. They often argue that person-first language is based around the idea that disabilities are somehow insulting or problematic, and that separating them away from the self reiterates those issues. "PFL intentionally separates a person from their disability," disability-rights blogger Emily Ladau argues for the website Think Inclusive. "Although this supposedly acknowledges personhood, it also implies that “disability” or “disabled” are negative, derogatory words. In other words, disability is something society believes a person should try to dissociate from if they want to be considered a whole person."
For person-first advocates, though, to be a "person with a disability" encourages the wider world to look beyond the only obvious thing they might be able to see (or perceive, in the case of invisible disabilities), to conceive of the person beyond it. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention uses person-first language in all official communications because they view it as the best way to speak "appropriately and respectfully" of people with disabilities. Though it began as a hopeful attempt to reduce discrimination and change attitudes, there's not much evidence that it's done so. It's seen as the proper way to attempt to make all-encompassing labels more subtle, to give the person with the disability the ability to define themselves, and to broaden the public's understanding of disability.
Both, at their core, are trying to solve the same problem: to give the disabled community respect and self-determination in a society that habitually discriminates against them and perpetuates negative stereotypes. The best thing to do in order to empower the disabled community to define themselves? Ask them how they'd like to be referred to — and advocate with all your might for wider disability-related protections and rights, to make life easier for everybody.