language – Page 7 – knitting in the dark

andromedalogic:

thefantasticspastic1995:

I always wonder who came up with the whole “person-first” thing with disability, because it feels like it would have been a non-disabled person. I hate the implication that my disability has to be removed from me, and separated from my identity, to make me okay.

Actually, it was people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who started it. Here is the history as given by The Arc:

On January 8, 1974, the People First movement began in Salem, Oregon, with the purpose of organizing a convention where people with developmental disabilities could speak for themselves and share ideas, friendship and information. In the course of planning the convention, the small group of planners decided they needed a name for themselves. A number of suggestions had been made when someone said, “I’m tired of being called retarded – we are people first.”

many self-advocacy groups of people with ID/DD are still built around a “people first” ideology, and that language is a conscious effort among them to resist dehumanization. of course, non-disabled people are given to using person-first language in dehumanizing ways — what else is new. they can pretty much figure out how to make ANY language dehumanizing.

but it’s important in cross-disability efforts to remember that person-first language is the product of people who were fed up with not being treated like people. and it’s still very important to many self-advocates with ID/DD.

of course, the Blind, Deaf and Autistic communities (for three) are staunchly opposed to person-first language because of the way nondisabled people have used it against us. (i don’t mean to say that everyone in these communities agrees, only that it’s the official position of the NFB, ASAN, the NAD, etc.)

so we all need to remember that different people prefer different language because non-disabled society has chosen a variety of ways to linguistically scorn us. either person first or ‘identity-first’ language can be used in a bad way. and either can be used in a good way. it really depends.