As a mother of a child with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and an advocate for human beings, with a specialty in physical disability and incurable disease, I quickly saw the wisdom in Label Jars, Not People. We should celebrate diversity and equality.
Please let me continue being your little ray of sass for today.
People-First Language
During some of my advocacy presentations, I would talk about The Most Appropriate Label. It was an illustrated cartoon of a person speaking to an individual using a wheelchair. The person sitting behind a desk says, “So, what do you prefer to be called? Handicapped? Disabled? Or Physically Challenged? The individual replied, “Joe would be fine because that’s the name my parents gave me at birth.”
In the United States, our society rarely uses a people-first approach to identify human beings but judges endlessly. I think the labeling goes something like this:
- Are you a celebrity in the movies, television, music, or any sports?
- Are you in the 1% wealthy category? Do you value wealth at any cost and hope to be the elite and powerful in your near future?
- What is your gender? Agender, androgyne, bigender, butch, cisgender, gender expansive, gender fluid, gender outlaw, genderqueer, heterosexual, non-binary, omnigender, polygender/pangender, transgender/trans.
- What is your religion? I won’t even try to list the thousands of existing choices.
- What level of education did you complete? Can I use prestigious to describe it?
- Are you a food, travel, fashion blogger, celebrity, or YouTube influencer with a vast following making lots of loot?
- If you are a woman, how much do you weigh?
- If you are poor, why are you so lazy?
- What political party do you vote for? I need to know so the unfriending can begin if it’s not the same as mine.
- What color is your skin? No, I mean ethnicity.
Perhaps you think my questions are exaggerations. I ask you to consider these instead: What if people’s worth in our society did not depend on what is assumed they can or cannot do or what they own? What if people’s value is what they are willing to learn, to teach, and inspire in the rest of us?
Assumptions
Labeling people, also known as assumptions, is a short-sided way to view any person and can lead to harmful results. Instead of making snap judgments about people, try giving them a chance to show you the truth of who they are. The people-first approach would be to treat someone in your life how you want to be treated. Holding unfair stereotypes creates conflicts and drama with family and friends, school, working environments, neighborhoods, our country, and the world.
Another one of my favorite cartoon illustrations is titled Parole Approach to School Inclusion. Two inmates are talking in their jail cell. One inmate is standing, and the other is sitting in his wheelchair. The man standing says, “What are you in for?” The man in the wheelchair replies, “Cerebral Palsy, but they said with good behavior I could be out in 3 to 5.”
Michael F. Giangreco created both cartoons, illustrations by Kevin Ruelle of Peytral Publications from 1995 to 2015.
Have you ever noticed labels like MD kid, CP kid, Autistic or Downs kid, to cite a few examples? Did you catch that the life condition came before the individual living with the condition?
People First Language puts the person first, rather than the disability. As an example instead of MD kid: my son Hayes is diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and thinks of his wheelchair as giving him back his legs.
Every person, with or without a disability, is a unique combination of many characteristics. Please be mindful to use respectful language when talking to people with disabilities. The next time you see or spend time with a child or adult living with complex challenges, I hope you see their strength and unique personality instead of a disease.
You might also think about how hard life is not only for the individual but also for the caretakers 24/7/365. Many parents are lifelong caregivers for their adult children. Imagine the love, devotion, lifting, and selflessness it takes for aging parents and sometimes grandparents to care for their loved ones.
Discrimination
I looked up the word discrimination. Here are a few similar words: bias, bigotry, inequity, racism, sexism, chauvinism, homophobic, one-sidedness, and ageism.
The idea that some lives matter less and have no purpose is the root cause of all that is wrong with the world. I don’t get the cruelty shown to people who look differently. If you don’t like minorities, I’m sure you don’t hang out with them. If you don’t like all the genders mentioned above, I’m sure you don’t hang out with them either. If you can’t stand poor people or those not as educated as you require, what’s the problem? What purpose does making fun of someone with a disability serve? On and on it goes. To think they don’t deserve the same respect and legal freedoms as any other person is what advocates still fight for.
It’s not a fight for more than; it’s the never-ending battle for the same as. In the disability, gay, and minority communities, there is another classic one-liner:
All-One=Discrimination
Discrimination in any form in a Democracy is supposed to be illegal. It is essential to understand that laws are lifeless words on pieces of paper until someone cares enough to hold people in high places accountable to make sure those laws are implemented to protect everyone’s right to equality and inclusion.
In future posts, I will be writing in detail about the intense and lasting pain of injustice and discrimination. Seeing my son and other children being discriminated against for years in the public school system was the hardest thing I ever had to forgive.
If you or someone you loved lived with a disability, how would you want to be treated? How about your loved ones? The unknown can happen to any of us.
If you want more information about laws and discrimination, a great place to start is the U.S. Department of Education. Click on Laws at the top of the website page when it opens. You can also do a custom search specific to the information you are seeking. https://www2.ed.gov
Tough Cookie Tip: As an advocate working on behalf of families and their loved ones, I thought of myself as a human gnat who no one can successfully swat! I learned the law, used it, and never backed down.
This post is dedicated to all the advocates working on behalf of human beings and in service to the most vulnerable children and adults.
Copyright © 2022-2025 Marilyn K Fuller. All Rights Reserved.
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Sis, you were and still are a great advocate for equality. That is one thing I always remember being told when we were growing up. We were told to follow the Golden Rule. Do onto others as you would have them onto you.
In my infancy years in advocacy there were a few who inspired me, amazed me and showed me how to help others. You were one of them Marilyn.
I’d love to see this change of attitude in my lifetime.