Hi
Thankyou for responding to the point. However I would still like to hear
more from you as I am a person with disability and I found that no matter
how I was referred, itwas ultimately the person's understanding the issue
that decided the stance taken by him/her
Regards
Anita
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| From: M.G.Peckitt <[log in to unmask]>
| To: [log in to unmask]
| Subject: Language, Political Correctness and Disability
| Date: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 8:18 PM
|
| To all
|
| This posting is a reply of some sort to Anita's posting
| about politically correct langauge and attitude change.
| As someone very interested in language and disability I
| always treat a new "PC" word about disability with
| suspicion This is because some of the time the word seems
| to me (and perhaps to me alone) to make those who do not
| have a disabily feel more comfortable. This is in some
| ways positive, if people feel more comfortable then the
| conditions for people of all abilities to interact are
| created.
|
| However, I get very angry when I'm told by the latest
| survey not only what term is preferred but what you MUST
| call people with disabilities. I am very weary of the
| effect of collectives on the individual. Even if such and
| such a word is better what moral right do they have to
| impose a defining word on anyone. When I was Equal
| opportunities officier at my college I was given a list by
| a member of staff which I had to tell the rest of the
| college at a committee to call disabled people.
|
| This list eliminated disabled, disability as PC terms
| allowing only Person/s With A Disability left. While this
| MAY be an approvment , personally saying " I have a
| disability or I am disabled" is fine to me, but I do not
| impose these titles on any other person with disability,
| make them speak my language.
|
| As to whether it changes attitudes, I if ind is down to a
| kind of psychology. If the word replacing is different from
| the word being replaced then people notice a difference.
| By different I mean phonetically and semantically e.g
| Handicapped to disablility is a big difference but Persons
| with Disability, while it does separate the person from the
| condition is not so noticeable.
|
|
| ----------------------
| M.G.Peckitt
| [log in to unmask]
|
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