Are you confused about all the labels used for persons with disabilities? Manisha Shastri explains why Person comes first, the origins of the word "handicapped" and what's wrong with other labels. And when in doubt, ASK
So, let me try and break this down for those who don’t understand why the term ‘persons with disability’ is politically correct and accepted, while all other terms are fairly offensive and exclusionary in nature.
While addressing a person with disability, you use the term 'person with disability’ because their disability is not their primary identity, they are a person first. Therefore, you use 'person first language.’ It is what is the accepted term as per the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which India has ratified. It is also what is accepted internationally and by most advocacy groups.
You don’t call a person with burns a 'burnt person’ or a person who has cancer 'a cancerous person’, you say person with burns/ cancer. Similarly person with disability/ autism/ mental illness/ visual impairment so on and so forth.
If you are still unsure, ask the individual what they are comfortable with. There are groups of individuals with hearing impairment that preferred to be called deaf, rather than persons with hearing impairment. So just ask.
Reasons why all other terms are wrong and have been rejected over a period of time:
Differently abled: Everyone is differently abled. You use your right hand to write, I use my left. You are good at languages, someone else isn’t - you both are differently abled.
Special needs: It’s called reasonable accommodation. A person with disability does not have 'special needs’, they have needs which may or may not require certain amount of accommodation - which could be something as simple as building a ramp for a wheelchair or providing written material in Braille. Nothing special.
Specially Challenged/ Special/ Differently Challenged: People with disability are not special. They are regular people, like you and me. There is nothing 'special’ about them or their disability. Their needs may be different - yes, but that does not make them differently challenged. Everyone faces challenges, that doesn’t make you differently challenged - why them?
Handicapped: The good, old, all time favorite term. Post WWII war veterans injured or disabled during the war stood on the roads begging with their 'cap in hand’, thus came about the term and its fairly derogatory.
They aren’t differently abled, challenged or special. They are first a person, like you and me. A person with disability. Their disability does not define the person they are. Nor is it their primary identity. The person comes first, the disability later.
Therefore, Person with Disability (PWD).
Manisha Shastri has a Master's in Social Work in Disability Studies and Action, is active and aspiring activist in the fields of Disability, Mental Health and Child Rights, and employed as Advocacy Officer at the Concerned for Working Children in Bangalore.
