What’s in a Word?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about accessibility and language.

It started with the word “blindspot”.

I have continued to use it, despite recognizing that it’s ableist language – language that underscores that society determines ability (vs disability) as the norm and therefore as more valuable.

It’s a word that is descriptive when talking about bias, and it’s the title of book by the creators of the Implicit Association Test (a great tool!)

Change is not always easy

When I have considered what to change my use of this word to, it’s been a challenge.

Nothing seemed to quite fit.
Nothing, in my opinion, captured it quite as well.

So, I didn’t make the change.
Until someone pointed it out (Thank you Sara!)

Here’s the article I received.
Can you relate?

When I finally made the effort, I found that although one word didn’t quite “cut it”, I could change the sentence and it worked.

Which reminded me that we can’t always simply replace; change often requires a rethink or a rework.

Making a change

Since then, I’ve particularly noticed the way (and how often) I use words like look, see, seen, hear, heard.

These are some other examples of words that can exclude people with disabilities.

Noticed, acknowledge, understood, considered…these are all words that can replace these words above, and allow us to step into the sentiment – in this case, that people and their contributions are valued.
But sometimes a word won’t do, and we have to rewrite the sentence completely.

Keep learning

The learning curve continues.

I’m able bodied, so noticing my privilege in this regard, and the ways I take my able-bodiedness for granted (and how it comes out in my communication) is something I need to pay extra attention to, in order to catch it and change my language so it’s more inclusive.

What’s in a word?
A lot of messages we may not notice.

Notice more!