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People-First Language
by Kathy Snow

A person is not handicapped.
A person is not disabled.
A person has a disability.

A handicap has been defined as an obstacle which society imposes on a person with a disability, i.e. inaccessible transportation or buildings, no signage, etc. Handicapped is not a term to describe human beings.  A disability has been defined as a body function that operates differently.  It's that simple!  It's just a body function that operates differently.  People First Language seeks to put the person first and the disability second!  People with disabilities are people, first and foremost.

The disability rights movement had a slow start in the 1970s, but the momentum has continued to accelerate, especially in the past few years.  Using People First Language is part of the disability rights movement, including:

In 1990, the Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped became the Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy.  On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, P.L. 103-336 was enacted, prohibiting discrimination based on disability in employment, public service, public accommodations, and telecommunications for the more than 43 million adults and children with disabilities in the US.  Notice it was not called the Handicapped Americans Act!

In late 1990, P.L. 94-142, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act was reauthorized and renamed by Congress to become P.L. 103-476, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  Isn't it all great?

But we still have a long way to go.  For government cannot legislate morality, values, or feelings.  Persons with disabilities must be perceived as valuable, participating members of society because they are.  Since our language reflects our values, our language must change.

Remember the Civil Rights Movement?  The Civil Rights Act was passed a long time ago, in 1964.  But it took years before the law really seemed to have an effect.  During that time, a long-used degrading term finally became Negro, then Black, and now African American.

Ditto the Women's Movement..."honey" and "girl" gave way to "Ms." No legislation was ever passed for this movement, but our society has, nevertheless, changed a great deal in this area.

Now it's our turn...time to change the language used to describe children and adults with disabilities.  No more labels!  Labels degrade.  Labels evoke negative pictures in our heads.  Labels don't address individuality - they lump people together and focus on the disability, not on a person and his/her abilities.  Society will not change its language unless we insist on the change.  We have the right to do so.

Have you ever wondered where the word "handicap" came from? The dictionary has one definition from an old Gaelic term which referred to a person with a disability who had to stand on the street corner begging with his "cap in hand".  Is this a term that should be applied to anyone with a disability?  Persons with disabilities want the same things all Americans want: dignity, respect, and the opportunity to participate fully in American life.

Those achievements are hard to attain when one's whole being is being defined by a label: handicapped, disabled, mentally retarded, crippled, autistic, blind, deaf, etc.  Traditionally, our society has not expected much from a person with a label.  This is changing now, for people with disabilities are more like people without disabilities than they are different!  A disability is simply only one aspect of the sum total of a unique individual.