I think language clearly shapes the way we think about different subjects. It's very common in our everyday language to use descriptors that dehumanize and create sympathy for anyone different than the normal; especially when it comes to disabled people. Often times we put their disabilities in front of them as people so instead of addressing them, we address what they're lacking first. We often infantilize with our words and behave in a way that makes it seem like disabled people are inferior or of less understanding of the world.
I am grateful that people like Sue Austin are challenging those ingrained beliefs and teaching society that people with disabilities are just that, people with disabilities.
To start I think that with language we should phase out the term "handicapped" and continue making differently abled people feel as if we are not putting what we think makes them different before them being people.
Like Wilmine I am Haitian too and unfortunately like some other languages, in Haitian Creole and culture we put the disability before the person. Along with the examples that Wilmine said like "entrave" there is also "kokobe" which means handicapped [person]. If we know someone for example with a limp, we nickname them after the limp and call them by their differed ability. This is dehumanizing to differently abled people.
I think what Sue Austin has done with her activism and art is beautiful.
With this video it show that people with disabilities are just as capable of doing everything that we are able to do as able-bodied people and that just because people have disabilities that doesn't mean they aren't capable of achieving great things. But when it comes to language, language seems too put scrutiny on disables people as they are now seen as defective or something. I know in my language of Haitian Creole the word for disable translates to either "enfim" or "antrave" which literally translated back to English to helpless. So I know when it comes to my language people with disabilities are mainly just seen as people who are helpless and more than not that is never the case.
I think language clearly shapes the way we think about different subjects. It's very common in our everyday language to use descriptors that dehumanize and create sympathy for anyone different than the normal; especially when it comes to disabled people. Often times we put their disabilities in front of them as people so instead of addressing them, we address what they're lacking first. We often infantilize with our words and behave in a way that makes it seem like disabled people are inferior or of less understanding of the world.
I am grateful that people like Sue Austin are challenging those ingrained beliefs and teaching society that people with disabilities are just that, people with disabilities.
To start I think that with language we should phase out the term "handicapped" and continue making differently abled people feel as if we are not putting what we think makes them different before them being people.
Like Wilmine I am Haitian too and unfortunately like some other languages, in Haitian Creole and culture we put the disability before the person. Along with the examples that Wilmine said like "entrave" there is also "kokobe" which means handicapped [person]. If we know someone for example with a limp, we nickname them after the limp and call them by their differed ability. This is dehumanizing to differently abled people.
I think what Sue Austin has done with her activism and art is beautiful.
With this video it show that people with disabilities are just as capable of doing everything that we are able to do as able-bodied people and that just because people have disabilities that doesn't mean they aren't capable of achieving great things. But when it comes to language, language seems too put scrutiny on disables people as they are now seen as defective or something. I know in my language of Haitian Creole the word for disable translates to either "enfim" or "antrave" which literally translated back to English to helpless. So I know when it comes to my language people with disabilities are mainly just seen as people who are helpless and more than not that is never the case.