I graduated from Partners in Policymaking yesterday, and if you've been around me for the past 6 months, you'll know what that is. It's been transformative, and inspiring, and I'll tell you about things I learned and experienced in future posts. It's a program offered in various places nationwide, and every 2 years in Oregon, so 2014 is your next chance if you are an advocate for a person experiencing disability.
As you may have noticed I've developed a new way of talking. It's called People First Language, and I'll refer you to Kathie Snow's website for the details. I care a lot about language. This doesn't mean I never make a grammatical error, but I strongly believe that the words we use both shape and reflect the way we think. I don't believe any of us would like to be referred to solely by our medical conditions, yet it is common to refer to people who have disabilities as a disabled person, special needs child, Life Skills kid, or autistic person. I have a disability, yet I am not referred to (at least not to my face) as a disabled woman. I prefer to refer to my daughter as a person with Worster-Drought-Syndrome or a person who experiences cerebral palsy. Mostly I prefer to refer to her by name unless her disability is crucial to the discussion at hand. I know that we live in the Twitter and Facebook generation when most people prefer to use as few words as possible, but I still believe that it is appropriate to refer to people, whose personal preferences you aren't familiar with, by the most respectful terms possible. After you know them better, you can refer to them by whatever terms they use themselves, but until that time, be respectful. Respect is a big thing at Alexa's school, can you tell?
My goal here is not to make anyone feel bad, after all, until six months ago, I used those words myself. The term I used then, "special needs child," now makes me cringe. I know many have you have rejected that term for the same reason I do now, my daughter's needs are not special. She needs, like all of us, to belong, to communicate, to learn, to love, to be loved, to be needed and depended upon. The fact that different support sytems are used to allow her to communicate does not make the need to communicate "special." Do you say you have special needs if you use glasses to read?
Oops, there I go again, off on a tangent.
I'm going to stop now and post this before I chicken out!
