[access-uk] Re: Appropriate terminology.
- From: "Brendan Magill" <brendan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 09:29:40 -0000
Hi Léonie and everyone,
Léonie, I knew as soon as I read your original posting that you had touched
on a hot potato with this one.
I think that the terminology used depends very much on the audience one is
addressing. In common parlance and amongst people who know, it's fine to
use the terms "Blind" and "Partially Sighted", particularly since those of
us who might use these to describe ourselves do understand what these terms
mean. However, the phrase "Blind or Partially Sighted" is a bit cumbersome,
which is why the, mostly non visually impaired, world has adopted the phrase
"Visually Impaired". That phrase, however, is itself open to greatly
different interpretations, so it may need to be defined.
Personally, I do not like the phrase "Visually Impaired", since I believe
that it is used totally incorrectly. What it implies is that there is
something impaired about the way a person is perceived visually by others -
i.e. that a person who is visually impaired is ugly. Now I may well be
ugly, but I don't really want to be described as so to and by everyone.
Again personally, I prefer the phrase "Vision Impaired", since this is
gramatically correct and does in fact define my disability. I, however,
although legally blind, do have some still useful residual vision, so some
may think that I'm regarding myself as vision impaired as I am not totally
blind. This is not the case, since I also describe people who are totally
blind generally as falling within the vision impaired category. Thus I use
the phrase "Vision Impaired" as a short form for "Blind or Partially
Sighted". The actual definition which I attach to "Vision Impaired" is as
follows:
"A person who is registered as Blind or Partially Sighted or who is eligible
to be so registered".
This seems to make "Vision Impaired" a fairly handy short form in regular
use.
I have to say that I take no credit for this definition of "Vision
Impaired". I originally found it over ten years ago in the Articles of
Incorporation of Blind Business Association Ltd, an organization which no
longer exists. It was actually defined there as "Visually Impaired" and I
was the one who changed this to "Vision Impaired".
At the end of the day we have to remember that there is a very great
difference between terms which are used generally, and maybe even
professionally as Eleanor said, and terms which we use ourselves. The
former needs to have clear and specific definitions whereas the latter is
always open to individual interpretation.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Brendan.
--
BRENDAN MAGILL
Business, Employment &
Disability Consultancy
14 Barry Street
Worcester
WR1 1NR
England
Phone: +44 (0)1905 28286
Fax: +44 (0)870 127 7856
Web: www.magill.co.uk
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