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Jul 10, 2013, 02:13 PM
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Member Since: Nov 2002
Location: Mid World
Posts: 18,116
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PAYNE1
I don't like it either. I am officially "disabled." I hate that word, too. I don't know what the alternative to these words would be, but I feel like I am a machine that has had its plug pulled or battery taken out.
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Payne, using "person first" language you are not "disabled", you are a "person with a disability." While that seems like a semantic game, I like the way it changes the emphasis. Saying someone is disabled makes it seem like they are their disability. Saying a person has a disability shifts the focus from the disability to the person. It focuses on the whole person who just happens to have a disability. Does that make sense?
A personal example - I have fibro NOT I am fibro. A person has a disorder/illness/disability, but that disorder/illness/disability does not defien who the person is as a person.
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