BY STELLA YOUNG
Last week, the Victorian Government released Reporting it Right, a handy little instruction manual to tell us the right words to use when we’re talking about disabled people. Or is it people with disabilities? People with disability? People with a disability?
I’m sure you know what I mean – us freaky looking/sounding/behaving people that make everyone so uncomfortable. It’s a good thing there are rules now. There’s nothing like spelling out the dos and don’ts to make people even more anxious about something they already find confronting.
Of course, some people are a little bit up in arms, dismissing it as political correctness run wild. Melbourne radio presenter Neil Mitchell is particularly incensed, especially about what he’s supposed to call toilets.
Disabled toilets are to be no more…And disabled car parking or disabled entry areas. All banned. All gone. They must now be accessible toilets, accessible parking space and accessible entry.
While I don’t agree that talking about the language we use in relation to disability is about political correctness, I’m actually with Mitchell in my general distaste for these guidelines.
The Victorian Government is not the first to publish such a guide, and they probably won’t be the last. There are already dozens of guidelines and rule-books about this stuff. They’re remarkably inconsistent, which is a problem in itself.
This resource from the Queensland Government urges journalists to “specify the disability” of the person they’re reporting on. By that I can only assume they mean “find out the medical name of this person’s impairment and insert some sketchy details you’ve sourced from Wikipedia”.
Journalists already do that at every opportunity. I am repeatedly asked in interviews exactly “what’s wrong” with me and I always give them the same answer; I don’t identify the name of my condition in an interview unless it’s relevant to the context of the story. The fact that I’m a wheelchair user is relevant to a story about access to public transport. The long-winded medical term for my impairment is not.
Top Comments
I am sorry Stella but I do not agree with you, I have a rare syndrome called PHACES and that pretty much means I have multiple disabilities, I am a person with a disability, saying you are a disabled person means you can't do anything for yourself, it gives me the impression you are broken but you are not, you just have to use a Wheelchair and may need assisstanc with certain things.
I am a person first, disability second, my name is not PHACES syndrome, my name is Tyrone and I prefer I get introduced as Tyrone and that I have PHACES. You may have your own opinion and views, I have mine. I agree with the guidelines and I will continue to push to be identified as the person first, disability second!
A person who lives with specific challenges or who is disabled can call themselves whatever they want. They can take the power of words and use them in any way that they feel good.
HOWEVER- I am a mother of a son who has autism. I work with other families who are living with autism. I am not dealing with the people who have autism, but with their parents- mostly their moms- and mostly with families who are being completely 'crippled' by the challenging behaviors that autism brings. Many moms would like to think of their children as people first, so out of respect to the work they do every day week month year and decade, I'll use person first language with them. Most people with autism do not care how they ate referred to, b/c they do not care what you think- LOL- and if I begin to hear from folks with autism themselves who strongly prefer a particular 'label'- I will happily respect that with them individually.