…Should Have Used Challenged, Instead Of Negative Framing Term, Disabilities!!!
I disagree.
“Disability” is a very widely understood term that doesn’t have any inherent bias, negative or otherwise.
“Challenge” more clearly suggests the idea of it being a personal thing to overcome. It is fine if an individual talks about their own challenges, but it’s not a descriptor inclusive of all disabled people.
Also more generally, be careful what you wish for. Any choice of terminology will inevitably be weaponized. When I was young “mentally challenged” and “physically challenged” terminology made it’s way into our school and the children were ruthless. “Disabled” has managed to be more resilient than most other terms from that perspective.
““Disability” is a very widely understood term that doesn’t have any inherent bias, negative or otherwise.”
As I a birn into challenges I can tell you for sure disabilities has those things, & definitely exploited by bulls & such, & not just in educating.
Challenge is indeed not a individual thing, neither is the other term, that you applying to both terms.
WOW, REALLY? How old are you? Where did you go to school? I was in Capitalist South Florida., might be the biggest reason. I went to school in the late ‘70s-‘2000s, counting higher educational experiences & even in degree & certification courses, never heard Challenge term used.
I was not in too regular-mainstreaming classes, growing-up, & they used disabilities & it was ruthless at times, even in PE & Etc. classes. Children ruthlessness is going to happen for a lot of reasons, like horrible parenting- one of the biggest problems in Capitalist 1st places, that want parents working over parenting.
If someone called me “challenged,” I would be legitimately insulted, because it would highlight my disabilities by way of using an unorthodox word to refer to them, thus drawing everyone’s attention to it.
I would also be insulted on account of the fact that tip-toeing around the very existence of my disabilities like this to such a degree as to worry about the word used to refer to them would implicitly other me. Doing that is spending more time worrying about language than was spent worrying about the person the language referred to, much less that person’s thoughts. Most disabled people, if asked, would tell you to call them disabled – this very thread being an example – and so to then assign us a new label would be an insult to our agency.
If you want people to refer to you that way, that’s fine. But you don’t speak for all of us.
Popularity does not mean those people are educated on importance of what they have expressed their popularity of. Most cases there are factors such as amount of time they used what expressed their popularity of.
If a person who has gotten in the media, that use, because the person “does” things for people with Challenges, but only uses a word, then that person has only given them the ability to exist under the so called “normal” (we all have some degree of Challenges) people. That term with a prefix that communicates without/negative, that communicates instantly that their lack of the ability, instead of using a word that instantly communicates that whatever their degree of anility is they can work to find their own way over overcoming it & performing as good as “normal” (we all have some degree of Challenges) people ways of doing things! That term takes away from the people, the Challenge(s) still points out the challenge is, but adds to the people!
That is what people here seem not to understand that using Challenge(s) is about empowerment & the other term is about decreasing one’s belief in oneself!“for all of us. Doing that is spending more time worrying about language than was spent worrying about the person the language referred to, much less that person’s thoughts.
“ – and so to then assign us a new label would be an insult to our agency.
If you want people to refer to you that way, that’s fine. But you don’t speak”
You have no idea who are talking to. I probably, not knowing who you are, have lived/since birth with my own Challenges, have more experiences with Challenged people, a degree & earned many diverse certifications in different Challenges (which I include not knowing a country’s language one lives in) from the best Higher Education Facility in my state & spent sometime in disaster of the state public education system, almost everyone on this website has! I did it because I respect & love people with Challenges & understand how empowerment & disempowerment works, had both on me, during my life! I think I put that in my profile,
‘challenged’ is a euphemism created by abled people/parents to make themselves feel more comfortable about our disabilities. like ‘special’ or ‘gifted’ or ‘old soul’ or ‘spirited’.
i won’t dress up my disabilities. i am disabled. if that makes an abled person uncomfortable: good. the sooner i accepted that i am disabled, the sooner i could move on with my life.
EDIT: lmao i’m shadowbanned from piefed.social.
i assume you mean well, but i don’t have challenges, i have disabilities. i don’t see it as a negative thing to honestly talk about how there are certain things that i cannot do.
imo, discussing disability openly and honestly is the best way to work towards a society that provides better accommodations & accessibility. but even if i hypothetically lived in a future where ableism didn’t exist any more, and i could easily access any accommodations i could think of, i would still be disabled. there would still be things i can’t do.
disability is something that effects almost everyone at some point in their life. even if you have no disabilities while you’re younger, disability comes for basically everyone when they’re older, in the form of reduced mobility, hearing & sight impairments, etc.
again, i assume you mean well by this post, but perhaps consider re-thinking why you see disability to be negative framing, rather than a fact of life & part of the human experience.
See we agree with everything, but using the word disabilities, which is a negative term, no getting around that. Just basic English language, dis, without or another negative word & obviously abilities, what one can do. Instead Challenges only means we have things that challenge us, that can be over come.
is disclosure an inherently negative term, just because it uses the prefix “dis”, even though it’s about being honest & making something known?
disabilities and challenges aren’t interchangeable. generally speaking, someone can’t “overcome” not seeing or not being able to walk. they might advocate for better accessibility by having more braille in public spaces, or for having more curb cuts for better wheelchair access, but those problems are societal, not individual.
ultimately, ableism is something for society to overcome, not disabled individuals. that “challenge” lies with society in general.
and again, even if we lived in a perfect society where ableism didn’t exist & accommodations were free & plentiful: people’s disabilities still exist, they haven’t been “overcome”.
I hear where coming from & is a good example, but that word is applied to someone’s mind-body. the fact that you are saying GENERALLY speaking is the answer.
Actually, BLANK yeah, people with such challenges all the time find new & sometimes better ways to do things people stupidly label them with a disability for.
this is a form of ableism called “inspiration porn”. it frames disability as something to overcome, which ends up being particularly crushing when disabled people have internalised this and despite their best efforts, continue to be disabled because it’s a normal facet of the human experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspiration_porn
also, you might not be aware of this, but “stupid” / “stupidly” and phrasing along those lines are ableist, and have a long history of being used against people with intellectual disabilities, and of being used to insult people via that comparison to disability. it’s essentially placing people in a hierarchy of “worthiness” based on intelligence.
i don’t mean any of this as an attack, btw, i believe you mean well. however, your time might be better spent focusing on getting rid of ableism in society, rather than telling disabled people to not use the word disabled.
As a lifelong & since borth person with Short & Long Term Memory & Language Processing Challenges, SLD degreed & many certifications in ESE, I probably know what you are talking better than you.
I have never really thought about the use of stupidity before, but at the same time, I time one can be stupid only because they are not using their minds on that topic, not because of any challenge their minds have. Thank you, though. With that being said & assuming you were right, what word could we use instead?
I am not taking offense, except using Wikipedia as a source for anything!
I probably know what you are talking better than you.
if you know better than resorting to inspiration porn and using ableist terms, why are you doing that?
what word could we use instead?
it depends. if you’re trying to insult someone, many many of the terms available will be rooted in disability in some way. hatred of disability is very deeply embedded into both the english language and english-speaking society at large.
however, if you don’t agree with or don’t like what someone’s saying, you can just say so. if you think what someone is doing is terrible and ill-advised, you can just say so. the result is clear communication and not perpetuating ableism, a win-win!
