The following article by S. E. Smith on disability terminology and popular media comes to us via the Inclusion Daily Express. You can read the whole piece by going to Inclusion Daily.
S.E. Smith: A Starter Kit For Nondisabled People And The Media
(Feministe)
June 21, 2010
FORT BRAGG, CALIFORNIA– [Excerpt] I thought I’d write a very brief primer on some disability terminology in US English, to familiarise nondisabled readers with the language that has arisen as disability rights activists fight for the right to self identify, to resist ableist language, and to confront problematic framings of disability embedded in the way we talk about disability.
The disability rights movement is much older than many people realise and from the start, people were tackling, confronting, and challenging language. Respectful language is already here; it’s been developed, refined, and used by people with disabilities for decades, it’s just disseminating to the general population very slowly.
It’s important to remember here that self-identification trumps all — if you are talking to or about a particular person, please ask how that person identifies or would like to be referred to.
It’s also important to remember that there are different frameworks for thinking and talking about disability, not just around the world, but in the United States. While this primer is broadly useful for talking about disability in the US, because that is where I am writing, your mileage may vary.
Entire article:
Disability Terminology: A Starter Kit for Nondisabled People and the Media
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0621e.htm
Related:
The media’s struggle with disabilities (Chicago Now)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0621f.htm
Planet of the Blind 
It is hard to to fathom how almost two decades after the ADA was passed into law the media still does not know how to refer to people with disabilities. Then again, if I visited you in Iowa at work I could not use the bathroom in the building that houses the English department. No wonder I bemoan the lack of social change and enforcement with regard to disability rights.
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