[visionrehabtherapist] Re: Possible Junk E-Mail A people-first language question
- From: "Kay Townsend" <ktownsend@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <Maduffy@xxxxxxx>, <visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:47:52 -0400
I agree with Sandy and Marcie with reaching the people who need your
resources the best way that you can and "educate" them when you have their
attention.
When people who need our agency "find" us they are just relieved to have
found people who understand with some answers, resources, instruction, etc.
People first language is not in their vocabulary nor their top priority at
that time. However, once they have associated with staff, services and
other people with visual impairments they learn and grow quickly in all
areas; but you have to reach them and their families first.
I have also done a tremendous amount of Public Education presentations in
the last 34 years and I am still amazed at the amount of misconceptions that
I still see but I keep plugging away at it. And some of those
misconceptions are a part of the thinking of people who are newly blind or
visually impaired that they have to overcome themselves first.
Perhaps if there were a TV show were the main characters were blind or
visually impaired living their lives productively and meeting life's
challenges like "everyone" else every week it would all sink in.
Until then we teach and educate every time the opportunity presents itself
to both people with a visual impairment as well as "people with vision".
Kay Townsend, CVRT
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From: visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Maduffy@xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:27 PM
To: visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Possible Junk E-Mail [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
_____
Dell
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