COMMUNICATING WITH AND ABOUT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Communicating About People with Disabilities

A key to any effective communication is to focus on the information that needs to be transmitted and how best to do that. Positive language empowers. When writing or speaking about people with disabilities, it is important to put the person first. Group designations such as "the retarded" or "the disabled" are inappropriate. They do not reflect the individuality, equality or dignity of people with disabilities. Furthermore, words like "normal person" imply that the person with a disability isn't normal, whereas "person without a disability" is descriptive but not negative. The following chart shows more examples of positive and negative descriptions.

Positive Phrases	Negative Phrases
person with an intellectual, cognitive, developmental disability	the retarded; mentally defective
person who is blind, person who is visually impaired	the blind
person with a disability	the disabled or handicapped
person with a hearing loss	deaf and dumb; suffers from a hearing loss
person who has multiple sclerosis	afflicted by MS
person with cerebral palsy	CP victim
person with epilepsy, person with seizure disorder	an epileptic or a person with fits
person who uses a wheelchair	confined or restricted to a wheelchair
person who has muscular dystrophy	stricken by MD
person with a physical disability,	crippled; lame; deformed; physically disabled
unable to speak, uses synthetic speech	dumb; mute
person with psychiatric disability	crazy; nuts
person who is successful, productive	has overcome his/her disability; is courageous (when it implies the person has courage because he/she copes with a disability)

NOTE: Remember, appropriate terminology changes with the times and people’s preferences may vary. If in doubt, ask. Most people with disabilities will be willing to help you.

Communicating with People with Disabilities

Be Courteous and Respectful

• Talk directly to the person, not a companion or the sign language interpreter. Extend your hand to shake hands. If the individual does not shake hands, he or she will tell you. It’s also acceptable to shake hands with the left hand.


• If the person has a speech impairment and you are having difficulty understanding her or him, ask the person to repeat, rather than pretend to understand. Listen and repeat back what you think you heard to ensure effective communication.


• If you offer assistance, wait until the offer is accepted. Then, if unsure how to help, ask the person with the disability for instructions.


• Treat adults as adults. Don’t talk down to them or address them by their first names unless also extending the same familiarity to others.


• Don't be embarrassed if you happen to use expressions such as "See you later." or "Did you hear about that?" Although those phrases may seem to relate to the person's disability, they are simply common expressions in our language.

MORE ON OUR WEB
http://www.und.edu/dept/dss/

                        

Adapted from Effective Interaction: Communicating With and About People with Disabilities in the Workplace.    http://www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/fact/effectiveinteraction.htm,  12-09-09