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People First Language
What do you call a person with a disability? A person.
What words define who you are?
The color of your skin or hair? Your
age? Your weight? Of course not.
When words alonedefine a person, the result is a label—a label
that often reinforces barriers created by negative and stereotypical
attitudes. Every individual deserves
to be treated with dignity andrespect—regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, hair
color, or anything else.

People First Language
People First Language is an objective and respectful way to speak
about people withdisabilities by
emphasizing the person first, rather
than the disability. It acknowledges
what a person has, and recognizes
that a person is not the disability. In
putting the person before thedisability, People First Language highlights a person's value, individuality
and capabilities.

What should you say?
When referring to individuals with
disabilities, be considerate when
choosingyour words. Focus on
the person—and never use terms
that label, generalize, stereotype,
devalue or discriminate. Unless it
is relevant to the conversation, you
don't even need to refer to ormention the disability.
The following chart has some
examples of People First Language.

Say This
people with disabilities

Not This
the handicapped, the disabled

people without disabilitiesnormal, healthy, whole or typical people

person who has a congenital disability
person who has (or has been diagnosed with)...

person with a birth defect
person afflicted with, suffers from, avictim of...

person who has Down syndrome
Downs person, mongoloid, mongol
person who has (or has been diagnosed with) autism the autistic
person with quadriplegia, person with paraplegia,person diagnosed with a physical disability
person with a physical disability
person of short stature, little person
person who is unable to speak, person who uses a
communication device
people...