hello
on a recent October evening I was
rolling down the pedestrian shopping
district known as Church Street in
Burlington Vermont a city that is known
for its progressive attitudes it is
after all the home of Bernie Sanders the
place where Ben and Jerry’s started in
the birthplace of that great American
philosopher of education and democracy
John Dewey and as well as I was walking
and rolling down the street I became
aware of a man approaching me and as he
got closer he started to talk to me and
he said that Hitler was right that
people like me the handicapped didn’t
deserve to live we should have all been
incinerated a little shocked I quickly
ducked into a restaurant to avoid any
further escalation handicapped disabled
how had these words become weaponized
hurtful and it started me thinking and
that while living for 40 years with a
disability I came to realize that the
only disability I really ever faced was
the words and actions of other people’s
perceptions of my being in a wheelchair
of the words that they used and the
assumptions that they brought about me
were the major obstacles that I
encountered in life and I came to
realize that discrimination of all forms
starts with language starts with words
the words we use in terms of the concept
of disability I was thinking about where
it might come from and I realized that
it actually comes from the rise of
science and enlightenment during the
European enlightenment and there this
period that shaped us is still
profoundly shaping the way that we see
the world and the words that we use
began by stipulating and ideal and norm
and these ideals were going to be
affirmative liam positively defined and
anything that deviated from that norm
was going to be negatively defined as a
disease
disorder or disability this is really
still how modern science and medicine
conceives of disability it sees it as
what we call the medical model which is
defined as a loss or impairment of a
species specific function or ability in
such it reduces a person’s complex
phenomenological experience all their
lived experience the totality of their
experience down to one physical
attribute and aspect and as such it
alienates and dehumanizes I continue to
think about what the man had said to me
and and I was thinking was this just a
random isolated act and unfortunately it
wasn’t and he knew his history and what
he’s referring to was the Nazi error t4
program which had a goal the Express
goal was to exterminate and eliminate
all German citizens with disabilities
it started with children disabled
children but it would quickly move on to
World War one veteran’s the goal would
be to identify classify and then
exterminate all of German citizens with
disabilities to the point where about
300,000 Germans would would have been
killed they the first thing the Nazis
had to do is they had to they had to
convince the German people that this is
okay so they set about to develop a
propaganda machine that changed the
words towards the disabled and they
redefine them as useless eaters and
economic burdens on society right they
had weaponized these words and they
became effective but they weren’t the
first and and they probably aren’t the
last indeed during the Nuremberg trials
many of the actual perpetrators of X of
the t4 program were going to declare
themselves innocent and they planted two
prior American and European medical and
scientific figures that were involved in
eugenics and scientific racism and
scientific ableism and in that they were
correct
today discrimination against the
disabled that I face another’s face
comes from that and I believe it’s how
we frame the notion of normalcy and
health today in science and medicine in
this context human abilities physical
cognitive behavioral are all going to be
understood as having a norm and a
deviation again is a disorder a disease
a disability this leads the medical and
scientific communities to project a view
that disability is something that has to
be overcome to be cured to be
rehabilitated and failing that then
it’ll try to remove or eradicate or
prevent that from occurring when science
and medicine sets the standard in
everyday discourse we can see people act
that out
so in our man on Church Street he felt
in emboldened to be able to spout
invective against a citizen right so
whether in Burlington or Berlin these
acts share I believe a common thread and
that common thread is the language we
use the language and words that we use
every day and that we’re the backdrop
from these historic tragedies choose to
view persons with disabilities as a
burden as an impairment but it’s not
always been like that and this is the
important part
recent bio archaeological evidence
points to cultures that not only allowed
for but accommodated people with
disabilities in surprisingly humane and
compassionate ways examples like the
wind over boy or the nazca child from
the Aztec tradition are evidence that
people with conditions that we would we
would today have defined as disabled
flourished in these relatively primitive
communities and environments this
evidence points to two really important
ideas worth noting today one is that
disability has been ever present in the
human
community and just as importantly there
was a culture of authentic care present
accepting the disabled and perhaps these
cultures were able to achieve this
because they like many indigenous
cultures today lack or lacked a word for
disability for example in many Native
American languages
there’s simply no word corresponding to
the word disabled and they don’t use
concepts like normal or abnormal and I
think we can learn from these ancient
cultures particularly as we go forward
into an uncertain future
in fact I think we must and since words
are choices words can be recast and and
coined and their meanings change to fit
our realities we can choose words that
affirm a noble and respects imagine if
we reckon sieved disability in this way
rather as a loss or an impairment but as
a natural occurrence a way of living
layers of being a different facticity a
different comportment and avoid any
evaluative interpretation we might find
that persons with disabilities would
perhaps self-identify with with whatever
marker of identity they chose and using
whatever assistive technology they might
find useful would flourish and prosper
and if we use the sufferer mning and
non-discriminating set of words I think
we just might find that a new world of
possibilities will open up and appearing
before us persons with disabilities will
become more and greater appreciated
members of our communities
and through integrated technologies and
inclusive policies will learn to
reaccept them as vital parts of the
beautiful kaleidoscope of the human
pageant a pageant that we’re all part of
we and we’ll return back to the wise
language that was used by those ancient
cultures in closing let me provide you
with just a single example of how we
might change our use of words instead of
using words describing the disabling
condition to define a person let’s try
to reverse that and think in terms of
person-centered language what this means
is let’s not say that a person is
confined to a wheelchair after all I can
get out of my wheelchair but rather a
person using a wheelchair a person using
taking advantage of a technology and
this will understand what the bio
engineer Hugh hare said when he said
there’s no such thing as a disabled
person only a disabled technology if we
look instead for what is present rather
than what is absent what is available
rather than what is missing if we look
to the skills and the abilities the
capabilities that each person brings to
the human pageant I think will come
finally to see a much more enriching in
beautiful world a world of limitless
possibilities and it’s all going to
start with our words and our language thank you
on a recent October evening I was
rolling down the pedestrian shopping
district known as Church Street in
Burlington Vermont a city that is known
for its progressive attitudes it is
after all the home of Bernie Sanders the
place where Ben and Jerry’s started in
the birthplace of that great American
philosopher of education and democracy
John Dewey and as well as I was walking
and rolling down the street I became
aware of a man approaching me and as he
got closer he started to talk to me and
he said that Hitler was right that
people like me the handicapped didn’t
deserve to live we should have all been
incinerated a little shocked I quickly
ducked into a restaurant to avoid any
further escalation handicapped disabled
how had these words become weaponized
hurtful and it started me thinking and
that while living for 40 years with a
disability I came to realize that the
only disability I really ever faced was
the words and actions of other people’s
perceptions of my being in a wheelchair
of the words that they used and the
assumptions that they brought about me
were the major obstacles that I
encountered in life and I came to
realize that discrimination of all forms
starts with language starts with words
the words we use in terms of the concept
of disability I was thinking about where
it might come from and I realized that
it actually comes from the rise of
science and enlightenment during the
European enlightenment and there this
period that shaped us is still
profoundly shaping the way that we see
the world and the words that we use
began by stipulating and ideal and norm
and these ideals were going to be
affirmative liam positively defined and
anything that deviated from that norm
was going to be negatively defined as a
disease
disorder or disability this is really
still how modern science and medicine
conceives of disability it sees it as
what we call the medical model which is
defined as a loss or impairment of a
species specific function or ability in
such it reduces a person’s complex
phenomenological experience all their
lived experience the totality of their
experience down to one physical
attribute and aspect and as such it
alienates and dehumanizes I continue to
think about what the man had said to me
and and I was thinking was this just a
random isolated act and unfortunately it
wasn’t and he knew his history and what
he’s referring to was the Nazi error t4
program which had a goal the Express
goal was to exterminate and eliminate
all German citizens with disabilities
it started with children disabled
children but it would quickly move on to
World War one veteran’s the goal would
be to identify classify and then
exterminate all of German citizens with
disabilities to the point where about
300,000 Germans would would have been
killed they the first thing the Nazis
had to do is they had to they had to
convince the German people that this is
okay so they set about to develop a
propaganda machine that changed the
words towards the disabled and they
redefine them as useless eaters and
economic burdens on society right they
had weaponized these words and they
became effective but they weren’t the
first and and they probably aren’t the
last indeed during the Nuremberg trials
many of the actual perpetrators of X of
the t4 program were going to declare
themselves innocent and they planted two
prior American and European medical and
scientific figures that were involved in
eugenics and scientific racism and
scientific ableism and in that they were
correct
today discrimination against the
disabled that I face another’s face
comes from that and I believe it’s how
we frame the notion of normalcy and
health today in science and medicine in
this context human abilities physical
cognitive behavioral are all going to be
understood as having a norm and a
deviation again is a disorder a disease
a disability this leads the medical and
scientific communities to project a view
that disability is something that has to
be overcome to be cured to be
rehabilitated and failing that then
it’ll try to remove or eradicate or
prevent that from occurring when science
and medicine sets the standard in
everyday discourse we can see people act
that out
so in our man on Church Street he felt
in emboldened to be able to spout
invective against a citizen right so
whether in Burlington or Berlin these
acts share I believe a common thread and
that common thread is the language we
use the language and words that we use
every day and that we’re the backdrop
from these historic tragedies choose to
view persons with disabilities as a
burden as an impairment but it’s not
always been like that and this is the
important part
recent bio archaeological evidence
points to cultures that not only allowed
for but accommodated people with
disabilities in surprisingly humane and
compassionate ways examples like the
wind over boy or the nazca child from
the Aztec tradition are evidence that
people with conditions that we would we
would today have defined as disabled
flourished in these relatively primitive
communities and environments this
evidence points to two really important
ideas worth noting today one is that
disability has been ever present in the
human
community and just as importantly there
was a culture of authentic care present
accepting the disabled and perhaps these
cultures were able to achieve this
because they like many indigenous
cultures today lack or lacked a word for
disability for example in many Native
American languages
there’s simply no word corresponding to
the word disabled and they don’t use
concepts like normal or abnormal and I
think we can learn from these ancient
cultures particularly as we go forward
into an uncertain future
in fact I think we must and since words
are choices words can be recast and and
coined and their meanings change to fit
our realities we can choose words that
affirm a noble and respects imagine if
we reckon sieved disability in this way
rather as a loss or an impairment but as
a natural occurrence a way of living
layers of being a different facticity a
different comportment and avoid any
evaluative interpretation we might find
that persons with disabilities would
perhaps self-identify with with whatever
marker of identity they chose and using
whatever assistive technology they might
find useful would flourish and prosper
and if we use the sufferer mning and
non-discriminating set of words I think
we just might find that a new world of
possibilities will open up and appearing
before us persons with disabilities will
become more and greater appreciated
members of our communities
and through integrated technologies and
inclusive policies will learn to
reaccept them as vital parts of the
beautiful kaleidoscope of the human
pageant a pageant that we’re all part of
we and we’ll return back to the wise
language that was used by those ancient
cultures in closing let me provide you
with just a single example of how we
might change our use of words instead of
using words describing the disabling
condition to define a person let’s try
to reverse that and think in terms of
person-centered language what this means
is let’s not say that a person is
confined to a wheelchair after all I can
get out of my wheelchair but rather a
person using a wheelchair a person using
taking advantage of a technology and
this will understand what the bio
engineer Hugh hare said when he said
there’s no such thing as a disabled
person only a disabled technology if we
look instead for what is present rather
than what is absent what is available
rather than what is missing if we look
to the skills and the abilities the
capabilities that each person brings to
the human pageant I think will come
finally to see a much more enriching in
beautiful world a world of limitless
possibilities and it’s all going to
start with our words and our language thank you
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