Let's Talk About It

Quick. Which is correct? A talented person or a person with a talent? A disabled person or a person with a disability? The rich, or rich people, or people with riches? The disabled, disabled people, or people with disabilities?

Do we need a reminder that people with disabilities are still, well, people, and not just disabilities? I hope not. For some years "people first" language around disability was officially promoted, especially in Canada. Today, both disabled person and person with a disability are commonly used in disability studies and the disability movement, internationally. I personally prefer disabled but will use both terms interchangeably in this weekly column.

I understand, though, how words can burn. I won't ever forget the words I heard when I first told a teacher that my daughter had a severe learning disability. "Disability, yuck! I hate that word." Funny how people lose their cool when confronted with disability.

But at least she was honest. Of course she hates that word. It's a highly stigmatized word. So is disabled. It doesn't matter whether it's used as a noun or an adjective. We try to disguise it or move it around a little, like a hot potato in our sentence structure. But that's not a solution. What we really need to do is address the stigma.

I have another reason for preferring disabled. Unlike the oddly euphemistic "differently abled" or the godforsaken "special needs", disabled is hard to gloss over and ignore. And it's easier to see that one might be disabled by the design of an instructional, social or architectural environment. Or disabled by the inadequacies of a post secondary institution, to bring it back to UVic. Lots of us are disabled. Let's deal with it.

In June, 2004, newly elected Conservative MP Steven Fletcher's arrival in Ottawa precipitated a flurry of accommodations for his wheelchair and attendant. Paralysed from the neck down as a result of a car accident when he was 23 years old, it wasn't Steven Fletcher who needed to be fixed. It was the environment in Parliament that required adjustment.

It always seems to me that "person with a disability" conjures up a disability separate from that person, like a suitcase you carry around. (Incidentally, why don't you park the damn thing somewhere - and quit inconveniencing the rest of us.) It is clearly your baggage and you should deal with it. Meanwhile, in reality, you need other people to work with you, even work a lot with you, to remove barriers to your participation.

In the election campaign, Liberals pointed to their plan for a national disability strategy, and the NDP's Jack Layton promised to push it. Both have well developed policies. The Conservatives were silent on plans around disability, except to say that they had Steven Fletcher. His riding is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, home to the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Centre for Disability Studies and location of the world headquarters of Disabled Peoples International.

I'll take good action over good policy any day. The new Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, might not have good disability policy yet, but he has a colleague who embodies the possibility of greater independence, dignity and inclusion for all Canadians. Congratulations.

Rose Mariana Robb is the Director of Access UVic! The Access UVic office is located in the Student Union Building, room B102. They can be reached at 472-4389 or access@uvss.uvic.ca