Word Up

We Got Mail!

We respond to comments from visitors to the Word Up! site.

‘Person with a disability’ or ‘disabled person’?

Visitor 1

"Thanks for the info on Word Up. Regarding some info in the Disability Language & Etiquette which was used as a reference on the site, I did not think that saying "disabled people" was appropriate (p.6) and that "people with a disability" was the correct term (or person with a disability) to put the person first.”

Visitor 2

“May I suggest that on all your linked documents that come from Britain, there is a flag comment that highlights for Australians the issue of people with a disability and disabled people. Some, like me, struggle with the lack of logic that a disabled toilet is a stupid descriptor and yet a disabled person is preferred. I think the thinking behind it, which I find difficult to explain in a phrase (as I can with people with a disability), is reasonable but too much the prerogative of a few.”

We respond

Thanks for the feedback. Our understanding is that there are two schools of thought behind the phrases ‘disabled person’ and ‘person with a disability’, that go something like this.

The phrase ‘person with a disability’ arises out of a movement that says that a person should be seen as a person first and foremost, and that having a disability is just one aspect of who they are. The argument is that the phrase ‘person with a disability’ focuses on the person rather than the disability. This is a very sound argument because it emphasises that a person is more than just the impairment they live with.

The phrase ‘disabled person’ arises out of a movement that says that a person lives with an impairment, but that the only reason it becomes a disability is when the wider community behaves, or is built, in ways that exclude the person. Examples include the negative attitude of an employer towards employing people who happen to have an impairment, and public transportation that is inaccessible to people using wheelchairs.

As such, it is not the person’s impairment that is the issue, but the way society runs. This means that society has disabled the person, hence the phrase ‘disabled person’.

This argument has gained strong currency overseas, for example in New Zealand and the UK, and reflects a social model of disability, which says that a person who has an impairment need not experience disability if they are in a community that is accessible in every way so that the person has the same opportunities as any other citizen.

The difficulty people can have is that it can feel confusing to say that ‘disabled parking’ is an unacceptable phrase, while also saying that ‘disabled person’ is an acceptable phrase.

There is very sound thinking behind both. If people feel unsure, then the phrase ‘person with a disability’ can feel a safer way to go because of its emphasis that a person is more than the impairment they live with.