Language and liberation

Whilst we are on the question of language, there is one more small, but important, matter that we must clear before we proceed to the text. No social group (with the possible exception of women in contemporary times) is as sensitive as the people with disabilities on the question of how they are addressed.

And rightly so. The disabled people as a group have been subjected to much social abuse. People often refer to them not by their name but by their disabilities.

There is also a tendency to view them as "abnormal" and therefore not qualified to carry out a "normal" life of living and loving. In many local languages, there are many labelling words referring to people with disabilities. And yet, as the following poem by Tony Wong of Jamaica shows, it is often the "able"-bodied who have more serious disabilities than those who are physically or intellectually impaired. The attitude of the able-bodied disables both the abled and the disabled.

On the other hand, however, in some cases this exercise has now swung to the other extreme. People, especially the able bodied, seek to find words that salve their conscience rather than change their prejudice. Words such as "mentally challenged" are invented as if words would change reality. The question may be asked: Who coined this terminology - the abled-bodied person or the "mentally impaired"? It is worse when words become a substitute for changing that reality. Language becomes a smokescreen to hide deeper prejudices. Calling a "black man" a "person of colour" does not remove the deeper prejudice, just as calling a drunk a "person of different sobriety" does not change the reality, nor calling a blind person one who is "optically inconvenienced." Some of the worst offenders are those in the medical profession who refer to the physically disabled persons as "orthopaedically impaired".

We must fight against linguistic insults, to be sure. But let us not hide behind linguistic relief either. To bring real relief we have to change the material and social reality of the disabled people. We have to change the behaviour of both the PWDs and the able bodied people by developing a positive attitude towards one another. This is the essence of mainstream integration.

Venkatesh: "I prefer to be called 'blind', rather than a 'visually impaired person'. 'Visually impaired person' is such a mouthful. Whether you call me blind or visually impaired is not important. The most important thing is what I feel about myself. It's about self-esteem."

Coleridge: "So does that mean that blindness is part of your identity which you feel quite happy with?"

Venkatesh: "If I am what I am today, you know, deep inside, the way my mind works, it is because of my disability. Disability has enriched my life as a person."

Amadou Issaka, Rehabilitation Project for the Blind in Niger, taking notes on his Brailler. (Photo by Marla Feldman)