GUIDELINES FOR TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

• Beware of the use of labels.  They often relate inaccurate information and perpetuate unnecessary stereotypes.                     It is more helpful to identify a student's  specific educational strengths and weaknesses than to say the student                   has a learning disability, emotional handicap, or other disability label.

• Focus on the  individual.  Use "people first language", for example say "student with learning disabilities,                            student with moderate or severe disabilities" instead of "the mods, LDs, MIs, or the severes".

• Don't let a person's disability become his/her label.  Keep the child more important than the disability.

• Be alert to emotional images created by the words we use.  Words like "pitiful" or "hopeless" convey negative                     feelings.  A person who has cerebral palsy is not a "CP victim".  Neither is a person with multiple sclerosis                 "stricken with MS".

• Be Positive.  It is better to say "she uses a wheelchair" instead of "she is confined to a wheelchair, or "he walks                with crutches or braces" instead of "he is crippled"

• Words Hurt.  No matter what the old English saying  claims about sticks and stones  breaking your bones and  words never  hurting you.  Words do hurt!

            Baltimore - by African American poet Countee Cullen when he in his late 30's.
 
 

LANGUAGE OF US AND THEM
By Meyer Shevin

We like things                                                                                                                     They fixate on objects

We try to make friends                                                                                                       They display attention seeking behaviors

We take a break                                                                                                                 They display off-task behaviors

We stand up for ourselves                                                                                                 They are non-compliant

We have hobbies                                                                                                                They self-stimulate

We choose our friends wisely                                                                                            They display poor peer socialization

We persevere                                                                                                                     They perseverate

We love people                                                                                                                    They have a dependency on people

We go for a walk                                                                                                                  They run away

We insist                                                                                                                               They tantrum

We change our minds                                                                                                         They are disoriented and have a short
                                                                                                                                                  attention span

We have talents                                                                                                                    They have splinter skills

We are human                                                                                                                      They are ???