From the After Deadline blog of the NY Times. Here's the description of it: "After Deadline examines questions of grammar, usage and style encountered by writers and editors of The Times. It is adapted from a weekly newsroom critique overseen by Philip B. Corbett, the deputy news editor who is also in charge of The Times’s style manual. The goal is not to chastise, but to point out recurring problems and suggest solutions. Since most writers are likely to encounter similar troubles, we think these observations might interest general readers, too."Discussing Disabilities
We should take extra care in references to people with disabilities.Here’s The Times’s stylebook entry:
disability, disabled. Mention disabilities only when their pertinence will be clear to the reader. It is acceptable to speak of someone’s physical or mental disability, but more specific descriptions are preferred: She cannot walk because of multiple sclerosis. When possible, treat disabled as an adjective or a verb. As a noun (the disabled) it may seem to equate widely diverse people and undervalue the productive parts of their lives.
We’re generally careful to adhere to the basic guideline, and our references overall are sensitive and relevant. But we could do better on the second point — trying, whenever feasible, to use words like “disabled,” “blind” or “deaf” as modifiers, rather than nouns. Consider these recent references:
Software That Opens Worlds to the Disabled … The competition was won by Bar Code Reader, the program to help the visually impaired read information on grocery items. Second place went to Mind Control, which allows the physically disabled to guide a computer mouse by neural impulses. … Project:Possibility directors have plans for more ambitious projects. First, there will be a competition in February with teams of computer science students at the University of California, Los Angeles, in hopes of multiplying the number of programs to help the disabled.
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But studies led by a psychologist at the University of Hartford show that for the blind, depending on when in life they lost their sense of sight, the reverse seems to be true.
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Speaking to reporters on Sunday night at the Waldorf-Astoria, where he was addressing a group from Yeshiva University, the governor was somewhat circumspect about the skit and avoided mentioning it directly. When asked if it had offended him, he kept any anger or embarrassment in check and deflected the question with an answer about high unemployment among the disabled.
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That is the world of the blind in Baghdad. An explosion’s size and nearness are judged by sound — a boom, a pop, a thud. Or by smell — acrid means burning rubber; metallic, burning cars.
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The difference between “the disabled” and “disabled people” (or “people with disabilities”) is subtle but significant. The shorthand might occasionally be unavoidable — in tight headlines, for example. But it’s better to refer to people who, among other characteristics, have some disability, rather than to use the disability as the sole label.
Some advocates, in fact, object to any phrase that refers to the disability before the person. They would uniformly use “people who are blind” rather than “blind people,” or “a person with a disability” rather than “a disabled person.”
Such alternatives may not always be feasible — they are wordier and may be awkward at times. But the point is clear, and important. A person with a disability is a person, first of all, with many characteristics beyond the disability.
