Contact Information
106 East College Avenue
Suite 820
Tallahassee, FL 32301
888-838-ABLE
(toll-free in Florida)
850-224-4493 Voice or TDD
850-224-4496 Fax
Email:info@abletrust.org
Questions or Comments?
Email the webmaster.
return to Communications Terms Index
Positive language empowers. When writing or speaking about people with disabilities, it is important to put the person first. Group designations such as "the blind," "the deaf" or "the disabled" are inappropriate because they do not reflect the individuality, equality, or dignity of people with disabilities. Following are examples of positive and negative phrases. Note that the positive phrases put the person first.
| AFFIRMATIVE PHRASES | NEGATIVE PHRASES |
|---|---|
| person with mental retardation | retarded, mentally defective |
| person who is blind, person who is visually impaired | the blind |
| person with a disability | the disabled, handicapped |
| person who is deaf, person who is hard of hearing | suffers a hearing loss, the deaf |
| person who has multiple sclerosis | afflicted by MS |
| person with cerebral palsy | CP victim |
| person with epilepsy, person with seizure disorder | epileptic |
| person who uses a wheelchair | confined or restricted to a wheelchair |
| person who has muscular dystrophy | stricken by MD |
| physically disabled | crippled, lame, deformed |
| person without a disability | normal person (implies that the person with a disability isn’t normal) |
| unable to speak, uses synthetic speech | dumb, mute |
| seizure | fit |
| successful, productive | has overcome his/her disability; courageous (when it implies the person has courage because of having a disability) |
| person with psychiatric disability | crazy, nuts |
| person who no longer lives in an institution | the deinstitutionalized |
| says she/he has a disability | admits she has a disability |
