A Lexicon Of Preferred Terms For Disability Issues


( Ok, I know my categories leave something to be desired. It's on my to do list. )
Students sometimes get a chuckle when I talk about 'politically correct' terms. [Sanitation Engineer, Domestic Engineer, etc] But I think we can all agree that words and terms are very important in communicating effectively.

Accessibility Ontario has an interesting 'Word Choices' page for disability issues.
http://www.gov.on.ca/citizenship/accessibility/english/preferredterms.htm
Words can influence and reinforce the public's perception of people with disabilities. They can create either a positive view of people with disabilities or an indifferent, negative depiction.

This lexicon of words and phrases is designed to help you choose language that is neither demeaning nor hurtful, and terms that are preferred by people with disabilities.

They provide a 3 page PDF version as well. This document has the distinction of being the first PDF opened in Panther's Preview.app. Nice, Very Nice.

Posted: Tue - October 28, 2003 at 09:39 AM            

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