Here at Career Contessa, we’ve explored how (and why) to use gender-inclusive language.
We've explored the way that certain words can hold positive associations when used to describe men, but negative ones when used to describe women—especially Black women.
In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at another important consideration when it comes to embracing the things that make us different and fostering an inclusive culture at work: how to avoid using ableist language.
The words we use to talk about disability may seem relatively inconsequential compared to bigger practical considerations, such as making our physical spaces accessible.
If it’s impossible for a person with a disability to physically enter our workplace, after all, we’re sending an obvious (if unspoken) signal to them that they’re not welcome. But the language we use still has a significant impact on how welcome—or otherwise—a person with a disability is made to feel in our presence.
Given that it’s relatively simple, with a little practice, to learn how to identify and avoid ableist language, it seems like a no-brainer that we should educate ourselves. In this article, we’ll be looking specifically at what ableist language is, what impact it has, and how we can avoid using it.
What Is Ableism?
First things first, let’s clarify what ableism is: ableism is a form of discrimination that favors people who don’t have disabilities over people who do. It’s a way of thinking that centers the experience of people who don’t have disabilities as “normal” and therefore defines anyone who lives with a disability as an outsider to that norm.
Examples of Ableism:
- Treating their needs as inconveniences
- Reducing people down to their disability as if it’s the most important thing about them, and likewise…
- Ignoring their disability, as if it wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) affect their life in significant ways
- Assuming that all disabilities are visible, and that invisible disabilities are “fake”
- Presenting people with disabilities as either victims or heroes, and not allowing room for them to be the fully-rounded, complex human beings that they are
- Making assumptions about how someone feels about their disability
Activist, author, and wheelchair user Rebekah Taussig shares these examples of ableism: “the assumption that all those who are deaf would prefer to be hearing, the belief that walking down the aisle at your wedding is obviously preferable to moving down that aisle in a wheelchair… the assumption that a nondisabled person who chooses a partner with a disability is necessarily brave, strong, and especially good.” She writes that “Ableism separates, isolates, assumes. It’s starved for imagination, creativity, curiosity.”
The fact is, one billion people live with some form of disability worldwide—that’s approximately 15 percent of the global population—and one in four adults has a disability in the United States. A diverse working environment is a healthy working environment, and so learning to avoid and change ableist attitudes will benefit everyone.
In fact, many of the attributes and skills you’ll need to develop to fight ableism will also help you fight racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination (because, well, intersectionality). Being a good listener, having a lot of humility in the face of someone else’s lived experience, and actively seeking out the input and perspectives of people with disabilities are all key to combatting ableism in our workplaces and beyond.
What Is Ableist Language?
Ableist language is any language that is derogatory towards people with disabilities, perpetuating the idea that people with disabilities are lesser humans in some way.
In a society that tends to see people with disabilities as defective and abhorrent, we’ve developed some troubling linguistic habits that reflect our (often unconscious) assumptions about people with disabilities.
Why Is Ableist Language Harmful?
Like any form of microaggression, ableist language tends to be subtle and pervasive. One thoughtless use of a word or phrase might seem like not a big deal to the person talking, but to the person on the receiving end of the hurtful comment, it can have the cumulative effect of making them feel like they don’t belong, are less capable, aren’t worthy, and don’t have equal dignity and worth to those around them.
Ultimately, fighting ableism (and ableist language) is about fighting the structures in society that make people with disabilities feel dehumanized, or, as Rebekah Taussig puts it, “like a living defect.”
Common Examples of Ableist Language, and What to Say Instead:
Some of the most common examples of ableist language include using disabilities (both physical and mental) in a pejorative way. For example, this might look like calling something or someone we don’t like or disapprove of “lame,” “crazy,” “psycho,” “dumb,” or “retarded,” and referring to a mistake or oversight as being the result of being “blind” or “deaf.”
Instead of using words like this, use more specific and accurate descriptors that don’t have anything to do with physical or mental disabilities.
Here are some ableist phrases, and ideas of what you could say instead:
- Replace “I’m feeling so crippled by my workload right now” with “I’m feeling overwhelmed by my workload right now.”
- Replace “This idea is crazy” with “This idea doesn’t make sense.”
- Replace “They have a blindspot about this” with “They don’t seem to be very strong in this area.”
- Replace “I felt like my presentation fell on deaf ears” with “I don’t think anyone was listening.”
- Replace “I didn’t know what to do; I felt totally paralyzed” with “I didn’t know what to do; I just froze.”
It’s also not a good idea to say that someone is “suffering from” a disability; this descriptor is based on an assumption about how the person in question feels about or experiences their disability.
Use the People-First Principle to Avoid Ableist Language
One principle that can help you to avoid using ableist language is called “people-first language.” This means centering someone’s personhood, rather than linguistically emphasizing their disability in a way that can feel reductive.
For example, instead of saying “she’s disabled,” or calling people collectively “the disabled,” you’d say “she has a disability,” and you’d refer to “people with disabilities.” Similarly, instead of saying “he’s wheelchair-bound” or “she is quadriplegic,” you’d say “he uses a wheelchair” and “she has quadriplegia.”
As this helpful resource points out, while it’s important that employers and colleagues of people with disabilities should use people-first language as a general rule of thumb, some people will choose not to do this when referring to themselves and their own disabilities, and that’s okay.
Ultimately, we need to be sensitive to the fact that different people will have different preferences.
Good Intentions Are Only The First Step
Most of us like to think that we welcome people with disabilities in our businesses, workplaces, and the wider community. Despite these good intentions, however, society is only just starting to wake up to the fact that we need to stop centering the experiences of non-disabled people and have some important conversations about what it means to value and include people with disabilities.
Collectively, we’ve still got a long way to go.
As Rebekah Taussig writes, “Ableism doesn’t listen. It assumes, erases, ignores, pushes away. It takes an entire group of people loosely identified by one characteristic and blurs a thousand individual faces into one giant category of ‘other.’”
We need to actively seek out—and carefully listen to—the experiences of people who live with disabilities. As we do this, fostering a more inclusive workplace will come more and more naturally to us with time; it can start today with being more intentional about the language we use.
