Person-centered words vs disability wording
Person-centred wording is something that we need to be aware
of but we need to be aware that it has two sides and it is rooted in what we
call the social model of disability and this says that as a person with a disability
we don’t need fixing that the world needs to accommodate the needs of people
with a disability much better that in currently does.
Most people respect this wording but we see that it has it’s challenged in that some people due to the industry they work in are much more comfortable
with the medical model of disability and the wording it provides as it makes
their life so much easier and we see that some people.
Mostly online are trying to police this and we see that it’s
actually in fighting between people with a disability as the medical model at times is the framework that needs to be worked in and there needs to be the technical wording used and
as long as it is respectfully I do wonder what we need to be aware of in what harm
using this framework is doing, as if a person knows when to use person-centred wording and then when to use technical wording due to the fact that the person
with a disability has the competency in their life to make decisions we see
that this “policing” of wording isn’t
going to work as words have to have a
very clear and valid meaning to make what the person is trying to say is clear
and we see that this is where having soft wording can be challenging as if a
person is “neurodiverse,” what does this allow and does it include the very controversial
topic of self-diagnosis and identification.
As self-diagnosis and identification can be dangerous due to
the fact that if forgets several things that are fundamentally tied to having a
disability, that having a proper diagnosis from the appropriate medical professionals
means that you can access treatment and accommodations in work, study and at
time’s care.
We see that people are also calling this gate keeping and gate
keeping is dangerous in that people are aware of the surface issues but not the
issues that are at the core of disability activism and if they haven’t gone
through the trauma of having to fight for a accurate diagnosis, care and
understanding what happens when this care is in consistent and not able to be given
is a cultural appropriate manner we see that this is where we start to run into
problems.
We also see that people are unable to be heard due to the
lack of complex understanding of these issues such as what people see and here,
as representative as disability. I will also invite controversy due to the fact
that I strongly believe that your disability isn’t an excuse, for bad behaviour’s
that are within a persons control.
I do see that if the behaviours are out of your control that
people need to be aware of this and that people need to see that this makes people
aware that disability can be used as an excuse and puts people with complex and
challenging needs at risk or harm and harm is interesting in that we are a
population that is at further risk of harm due to having a disability and at times needing
care and support.
So by not having access to this we see that people aren’t
always accommodating to disability due to this behaviour and the policing of
there words and forcing them to use words that they don’t know what they mean
and this means that they don’t know how to support someone as they don’t know
what that disability means, to them when we start to broaden the wording around
certain disabilities such as, ADHD, Autism or Brain damage. We start to see that people are able to
understand what general impacts that this disability would have on people and
we see them start to understand the need for accommodations and support
programs and day centres.
We also see that they start to use person centred wording
and not medical terms but know when to balance the usage of both due to the fact
that people are able to understand what they are doing much better.
I also see that having a demand that people use certain words
and demanding that they use it other wise it is hate speech just further serves
to see that people don’t want to be told what they can and can’t say and to be
effective we need to risk offending people and this then gets them to challenge
there world view.
As we are seeing a worrying trend as we normalize disability
to have all of the behaviours tolerated even when they are within a person’s control
and they have that ability to understand that they are doing something wrong. I
do know of situations where a person is doing something wrong and didn’t understand
that they are doing something wrong but this is where I start to see that it comes packaged with demanding that a non
disabled person excuse this behaviour and they understand what is happening with
this person and how to challenging it and if a person acts out it then simply puts
people on the alert that this person won’t own their own behaviours and actions
and use disability as an excuse for bad behaviour’s. I am not saying that at
times it is a reason but we can all learn from our mistakes and challenges and
we see that people need to be aware that as we normalize disability we don’t need to normalise bad behaves that lead
to the further misunderstanding of what disability is and that leads to people
not believing people with a hidden disability that they can’t control there behaviours
and there are some people who use there disability as an excuse not a reason
and I have talked about this before and we see that some people have fought
long campaigns to have the rights of a person with a disability recognised and we see that.
This is much more effective challenging there word view than demanding that they conform to
ours as unfortunately we are very much a minority group and are effected but
policy decisions much more than people would like to think.
We also see that people need to be aware that in a democratic
country that freedom of speech does have
limits and we see that these limits are actually much broader than what people
assume, and we see that this is where people need to be aware that people are
able to say what they think. It’s only
if it’s dangerous or promoting violence against a group of people that people are
at risk of harm that is when the laws are able to step in and we see that
people need to be aware of this as many people wrongly believe when they go
after someone because they are using what they know such as medical wording to
describe a person with a disability, vs person centred wording we see that
people are very much aware of the disability community but are tired of the forcing
to use the wording that they demand they use as there is a place for both medical
and person centred wording.
I also see that it is people who haven’t gone through getting
a proper dingoes and believe that self diagnose is ok are the people who are
online who are demanding that this wording be adhered to and they are inviting themselves
to sit at a table that they haven’t been a part of and believing that they have
the right to speak for everyone with a disability. Even I know that I can only speak
to my lived experience of disability and need to consider when I am wrong and
this is the mark of a good advocate and person that they are wiling to admit
when they are wrong.
We also see that people who self diagnose are at risk of getting
the mark very wrong and there for treating the wrong thing due to the fact that
they aren’t trained in disability they only know there experiences as there are
a lot of physical health conditions that can mimic disabilities and if they
aren’t picked up they can cause a lot of harm to a person with a disability and
we see that this is where this risk comes in to it as yes we need better access
to medical care and support and to be believed but by demanding change by
demanding that people adhere to a framework that might not be suitable to what
they are trying to describe we see that people are unable to see beyond there disability
to the potential harm they are causing the disability community by believing they
speak for the whole community and sector.
As we see that medical wording needs to be used with caution
but by eliminating it completely we see that people need to be aware of this
danger as when you start to change the meaning of wording by force it dilutes
the meaning of what you are trying to say and describe and we see that it allows
for a lot of cop outs in a way as well.
Comments
Post a Comment