I’m taking a stand against so-called political correctness. Recently, during a meeting of one of my writing organizations, Behind Our Eyes, we discussed the use of language in writing. This got me thinking about how I’ve never liked the term “people with disabilities.” It’s too wordy, like saying, “cats with blackness” or cars with whiteness.” We normally say, “black cats” and “white cars” so why not “disabled people.”
Being disabled is part of who a person is. A cat isn’t ashamed to be black, and a car isn’t ashamed to be white. So, people with physical or mental impairments should never be ashamed to be disabled people.
That said, I’ll no longer refer to writers with disabilities. I’ll say, “disabled writers.” Instead of telling people that I have a visual impairment, I’ll say I’m visually impaired. It’s a part of who I am, and I’m not ashamed of it.
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By the way, today, my totally blind and partially paralyzed late husband and I would have been married fourteen years. Rest in peace, sweetheart. I love you.
New! The Red Dress
Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
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My Corner 
That made me laugh, cats with blackness. Yes how true we get oursleves tangled up in to many words, trying to say the right thing and avoid the wrong thing.
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Now that I think of it, a cat with blackness is pretty funny. Thank you for commenting.
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I think you’re right. People try so hard to say the right thing that often it ends up either being nonsense or the wrong thing. I went to a course about Disability Rights and the presenter told us it was not PC to say ‘disabled people’ or ‘person with a disability’ but we should say a ‘person with an impairment’. There was also an argument that the sign (such as for disabled persons’ parking, or the accessible lavatory’ was discriminatory as it’s the image of a person in a wheelchair – his argument was that not all disabilities are ‘obvious’ and so this discriminated against those of us with unseen or less obvious disabilities. We countered with it has to be an immediately recognisable image. If there were half a dozen images people would get confused. It is impractical.
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Well, if you use the word “impairment,” to some, it sounds like the person is under the influence of alcohol or other substances. No matter what word you use, not everybody will be happy.
As for handicap parking, an image of a wheelchair should make it clear that such spaces are for people in wheelchairs who need easier access. Otherwise, anyone with any disability would feel a need to park in one of those spaces. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
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