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Words And Images With Dignity
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Language plays a powerful and important role in shaping ideas and perceptions. Sensitivity in how we present information relating to people with disabilities can go a long way in overcoming the most difficult barrier to full integration and accepting attitudes.
When possible, emphasize the uniqueness and worth of the whole individual by saying a person who has a disability or a person who is deaf, rather than disabled persons or deaf persons.
Because people are not conditions, do not label individuals as the disabled, the epileptics, the post-polios, etc. Say instead, people who have disabilities, have epilepsy, have had polio, etc.
The terminology used for activities of daily living need not change. People in wheelchairs dance or go for walks, blind people look, deaf people listen. Disabilities may just require that some things be done in a different manner.
(From: "Portraying People with Disabilities: Suggested Guidelines for People in the Media" a pamphlet published by the British Columbia Rehabilitation Society and "Words With Dignity" published by the Ontario March of Dimes).
A Way With Words and Images - HRDC Canada Publication:
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