Words convey images and feelings and influence the way people think. The choice of negative language when describing disabled people can injure feelings and create barriers to understanding.

Vocabulary

recommend, mandatory, avoid, impairment, afflict, suffer, cripple, invalid, confine, spastic, insane, dumb, mute, restrict, stature, seizure, spell, fit

Read through the terms in the table and then do the tasks which follow.

Recommended Terms	Recommended Norwegian Terms	Terms to Avoid	Norwegian Terms to Avoid
disabled people		the disabled, the handicapped
has + name of impairment		afflicted by, suffers from
disabled person		crippled, invalid, physically handicapped
wheelchair user		confined to a wheelchair
person with cerebral palsy		spastic
non-disabled		able-bodied
person with mental condition		mental patient, insane, mad
person with hearing impairment		deaf and dumb, deaf mute
blind people, people with visual impairment		the blind
person with restricted growth or short stature		dwarf midget
seizures		fits,spells,attacks

Task:

What are the equivalent terms in Norwegian? Fill in the table showing the recommended Norwegian terms and those which should be avoided.

If you need some help, click here.

Discuss:

What is the difference between the terms, "disabled people" and "people with disabilities"? Is the one to be preferred over the other?
Many of the terms to be avoided are often found in daily use and in the media. Search the Internet for examples (use some of the words to be avoided as search words) and discuss whether the examples you find are used in a derogatory way.

Recommended Autobiography and Film

My Left Foot by Christy Brown, My Left Foot - Novel, Film and Art.

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