Hi everyone
It is an interesting debate that has been going on in terms of
'special needs - to be or not to be' and thanks to Patrick, Andy and
Judith for the thought provoking discussion. I would like to continue
the debate, and I have changed the subject heading to
'terminology'. This is just administrative, but people wanting to
search back accessibuilt achives can do this by subjects, so I
thought we'd change.
I feel there is no right or wrong answer to the correct terms of
disabled, special needs etc. I feel that it comes down to personal
preference coupled with what Patrick referred to as the 'learning
curve' because our views change over time. I would like to illustrate
a few things though that have affected my use of terminology:
1. when Marcus and I started our disability research about 2 years
ago we were very conscious about terminology, and were also
aware of our lack of understanding of 'correct terminology' We
spent time learning what we thought was appropriate, always
saying 'a person with a disability' (people first) rather than 'the
disabled person'. We then progressed to 'a person who is visually
impaired' rather than 'a blind person', then we met and worked with
Andy, Adrian and Judith. Help, here we were about to undertake
job interviews for research assistants, most of whom had a
disability. But we got it sussed, Judith was 3ft something tall, so
we would abvioulsy refer to her as 'a person of small stature'. But
then the shock came, we interviewed Judith and she just referred to
herself as being 'a dwarf'. All our political correctness went out of
the window, Judith was just into the pragmatics at the end of the
day, for her own justifiable reasons which she will no doubt explain.
2. 'special needs' for me conjurs up an image of a child who is
handicapped. My experience is of special needs being a term used
prediminatly in schools and education authorities when referring to
children. It also suggests to me a link with someone who is
handicapped.
(Note, I don't like the term handicapped, it is something I do not
use but I can relate to it 20 years ago when it was common
language)
I feel special needs relates to a term that has been around for a
long time, and perhaps it is time to move on.
3. the need to take people along with us, or to do things
incrementally. Again, a couple of examples:
About 6 years ago MENCAP changed the term 'mentally
handicapped' to 'learning disability' There was a lot of debate.
Some people kept to mantally handicapped. Some changed to
learning disability, but the outside world wonders what this means
because the public have not been educated. Some changed to
'learning difficulty' because they did not like 'disability'. I would
suggest that total confusions reigns, and in considering what to
name something, it is important to recognise what the public will
understand.
On a recent trip to Cape Town it was interesting to see the signs
pointing to the toilets as being
'women, men, physically challenged'
I was subsequently sent about 3 photos of these signs from
colleagues who used the airport. These colleagues would not have
thought twice about the wording a few years ago, but by slowly
educating people we can start to influence what is / is not
acceptable. Obviously we've got a long way to go in educating
south africans!
So Patrick, your wording of the service to the public is
fundamentally important and I hope you will keep the list informed
of developments. If you asked me about why my loyalties lay, it
would not be with special needs, but thats because of my own
experience. Equally I'm not in favour of 'impaired' because I do not
like the term 'learning impairment'. My sister, and my mother, both
need 'special' considerations when using an airport and flying. I
would like to use a service that meets their needs effectively and
one that isn't just paying lip service.
I can't conclude ...... ooer .... I would like to give more thought to
the issue, and I would like to wait to hear what other people have to
say.
Rita
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