People First Language is used to avoid disrespecting people with disabilities. PFL avoids disrespecting people by emphasizing the person before the ability. When you emphasize the person before their ability you avoid dehumanizing them. Many times people don’t notice that they are dehumanizing others by not using People First Language – it’s something that is not on most people’s radar. I am hoping to help put PFL on people’s everyday radar.
So, how do you know if you are using PFL correctly or incorrectly? Here are a few examples of not using PFL correctly and examples of properly using PFL:
Non-People First Language:
“She’s learning disabled”
“He’s brain damaged”
“She has problems with…”
Changing the Non-PFL into proper People First Language:
“She has a learning disability”
“He has a brain injury”
“She needs…”
If you look at the differences between the Non-People First Language and the properly used People First Language you will see that, with PFL, the ability does not define the human. Instead of saying “She is learning disabled” it was changed to “She has a learning disability.” The difference between the words is and has is major.
The example that most people struggle with is “She has problems with…” because they do not recognize why that statement is dehumanizing or disrespectful. The part of that statement that is disrespectful is the word “problems.” Instead of saying that someone has a problem state that they have needs. The difference between problems and needs is that problems articulate what is “wrong with the person” while needs articulates what will help the person grow and succeed in life.
Some other terms to avoid using in People First Language is: Normal People, lame, handicapped, midget, psycho, retarded and crippled.
To summarize, the whole point of People First Language is to emphasize the person before the disability.
For more information on PFL check out:
The National Inclusion Project
Please be aware of the language you use, Collegiates.
HCXO
*Image courtesy of Pinterest.