Words used to describe others have a huge impact on their lives despite the age old saying of "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." In fact they do, they leave a psychological impact that can be felt for years to come. Those with disabilities have been the subject of discrimination, prejudice, demoralization amongst other things.
A majority of demoralization and devaluation targeted at the disability community has been done through the use of language. Language has been used to "other" meaning that language can be used to label those who are not the same as us as less than as opposed to equal to.
Once a group has that label it is hard to move away from the cognitive associations that have been made. This also opens the door for prejudice and discrimination to ensue along with stereotypes. Stereotypes have been born from overgeneralizations about those with disabilities especially through the use of language. Language is crucial in every culture because it is how we display our thoughts and also our attitudes. Language is also a driving force in our actions. This is why using people first language is crucial.
Words describing those with disabilities such as "the blind woman" are simply just medical diagnosis. People-first language puts the person's pronoun before the disability that is used to describe them. This also breaks down the cognitive association that people with disabilities are different than those without disabilities and reaffirms that people with disabilities are more alike.
Some of the phrases and usages society collectively tries to avoid are the words "retarded" and "autistic." Using people-first language, we now say "He or she has a cognitive impairment" or "He or she has autism." Disability is already thought about in a negative manner, focusing more on what the person with the disability cannot do rather than what they can. People with disabilities are seen as drags of society, broken, in need of fixing, all seen within the social model of disability. There is a shift away from what the person cannot do and more of a focus on the uniqueness of the individual. People first language is a reaction to the social model of disability which often identifies barriers and negative attitudes and strives to dismantle them.
People tend to associate people-first language with being politically correct, when in fact, it is more about being mindful and respectful of the descriptive language we use to describe others. If we can change our language to change the way we look at people with disabilities we can also change the outlook people with disabilities have on themselves. In addition it is important to consider the following: at one point in your life you may be considered disabled — how would you want others to view and react to you?
