[visionrehabtherapist] Re: A people-first language question

  • From: Penny Reeder <penny.reeder@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: mcinnisj@xxxxxxxxxxxx,<graysjoinery@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,<Maduffy@xxxxxxx>, <visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:34:01 -0400

Hi,
I think that people-first language is very important because it expresses an important principle. We, as people with disabilities, are not defined by our disability or by the fact that we belong to a class of people who have a similar life circumstance; we are defined by our individuality, with each of us, sure sharing some characteristics with others who are members of the class which we belong to, but also with each of us as unique individuals. Defining people by the groups to which they belong can lead to some undesirable consequences, including not getting to know individuals, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry.
If we meet a person who is blind and call that person, "the blind person," or "the blind," then it's harder to think of that person in ways that are not delineated, first and foremost, by the characteristic of being blind.
I think that it is disrespectful to call another person a "blind person," or a "mentally retarded person," or a "cripple," or any number of other terms which are used, all too often, to identify people, not by who they are, but by their disabilities and their differences.
It may seem too subtle to bother with, but I think the language we choose to use says a lot about our attitudes, whether we want to admit it or not. 

Penny




At 10:33 PM 6/17/2009, McInnis, Janet (DELEG) wrote:
when I google, I just google and am not really thinking too much of people first language. I liked what Sandy said, how we treat folks is important and speaks volumes. If you get more hits with "the blind" go for it, but, what happens when you search vision loss or visually impaired or low vision type terms? Where does VisionAware fall in with those keywords? Because...I run into lots of families who are looking for info for older family members and the word "blind" still is not in their vocabulary. We in the field use it freely and interchangably, but not sure that persons experiencing new diagnosis of mac degen, retinopathy, glaucoma. In fact if doctors are telling patients, rightly or wrongly that they will not go blind, I may avoid that term altogether. 

________________________________
From: visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Bill and Diane Gray 
Sent: Wed 6/17/2009 9:54 PM
To: Maduffy@xxxxxxx; visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [visionrehabtherapist] Re: A people-first language question
How about educating people on why it is important to use people first language at the beginning of your website so that both key phrases will come up in the search. 
Diane Gray

        -----Original Message-----
From: visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Maduffy@xxxxxxx 
        Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:27 PM
        To: visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: [visionrehabtherapist] A people-first language question




        Greetings, colleagues:
This is Maureen Duffy, Editorial Director of VisionAWARE.org, a "self-help for vision loss" web site. I need your thoughts and feedback about a "people-first language" issue that is troubling me. At first glance, you might think this is an esoteric request, but I assure you that it is not.
We are strictly a web-only resource, with no brick-and-mortar presence; thus, Internet search results are very important to us. Here is my dilemma regarding our use of people-first language, which we take great care to use throughout our site:
If I Google a phrase such as "resources for people who are blind," VisionAWARE will appear on page 1 of the search results, which is good.
If I Google a phrase such as "resources for the blind," VisionAWARE is displayed much lower in the search results, which means that potential readers are far less likely to find our information.
A keyword suggestion tool I've used shows substantially more related results for "the blind" than for "people who are blind." Googling "the blind" returns roughly 19.6 million search results for that phrase and only 726,000 search results for "people who are blind." Clearly, people are more likely to think/say/search on something related to/for "the blind" vs. to/for "people who are blind."
Editorially, we take great care to say, "... for people who are blind or have low vision," but that could be working against readers finding our web site and the excellent information contained within it.
Thus my dilemma: Is it better to abandon our insistence on using people-first language and allow more adults in need of vision rehabilitation information find our site, or should we continue to set the example with people-first language and languish undiscovered by many adults in need of our information? (Perhaps the dichotomy is over-dramatized, but you get the idea.) 



        Your comments, ideas, and feedback are most welcome.



        Thank you in advance,

        Maureen A. Duffy, CVRT
        Editorial Director
        AWARE (Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation & Education)
        Phone: 914-528-5120
        e-mail: maureen.duffy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Are you aware of our web site?
        www.visionaware.org <http://www.visionaware.org/>
        "Self-Help for Vision Loss"
        www.twitter.com/visionaware



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