.
Some of the 'Able-bodied versus non-disabled' comments reminded me that
people do not quickly jump from typical, socially-imprinted, adverse attitudes
to more enlightened ones. There are usually stages -- and the language used
may change. For example, take "The Rehab Professional":
*ME*
-- With my training and skills, I can help the disabled...
-- It's rewarding, when you complete a case.
*US*
-- In the interdisciplinary team, we share cases.
-- You can learn a lot from seeing how the others handle the cases...
*US and CLIENTS*
-- You have to listen to them, and think of their ordinary, everyday lives...
-- It's got to work in practice, when they're at home, with family and
neighbours, and round at the shops, the school, the mosque...
*ALL OF US TOGETHER*
-- Really, we have all got to change our attitudes...
-- We all need to work toward a society designed by and for all sorts of
human beings...
*ME AGAIN...*
-- I now see my own abilities and weaknesses in perspective...
-- I have helped some, and been helped by many...
-- Working together with my colleagues and clients and local communities,
toward a society that fits us all, I've discovered who I am...
(This was one of a small series of sketches of 'stakeholders' -- not based on
research, but on observation and reflection -- for discussion in various
seminars. Quite a lot of people seemed to recognise themselves in various
stages of their lives, or suggested some other steps or stages. But this does
not 'prove' that it's a good description of attitudinal evolution. It's merely an
example for thinking with).
The point is, people may take half a lifetime to change their perspective,
because the steps or stages (which have probably been better formulated by
others having more experience of this kind of thing) are not easily learnt from
a book. Some professionals may have seeds of each 'stage' in their minds
and hearts from the beginning, which grow slowly in turn. Others may remain
preoccupied with their "ME and My Skills" stage for thirty years, and only
realise late in life that it's useful to notice what colleagues may be doing, but
never reach the point of seeing disable people /PWDs as anything more
than 'cases'.
Others may start with the idealistic wish for mutuality and respect for others
and community-building, but become embittered after a few years, and
narrow their perspective down to "ME and My Career". There's a lot of burn-
out in caring or altruistic professions. (And that, of course, may happen also
with able-minded disabled activists and their allies...)
There is no single 'approved' vocabulary or terminology that will suit all
people, or even most people, through all the stages of evolution or
regression, or circular change. It is perhaps more useful to become aware of
a range of terms in current use in various situations, and in several
languages (with the nuances of meaning and colour, by which different
languages can enrich one another), and learn to bring them into play at the
right time and place. Terminologies are also undergoing fairly rapid
evolution, so it's a lifelong task to maintain a useful working bag of words.
miles
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