Disability and language

[elettaria]

I just updated ColorfulTabs, and found myself rather irritated by the language being used, which was no doubt meant well but comes off as condescending. I'm curious to know what other folks think. Please do talk about this further in the comments.

Comments

[elettaria]

I've noticed that I've left "blind (used about groups)" unticked in both questions, as I put it somewhere in the middle between ideal and to be avoided. Visual impairment covers a wide range and while "blind" doesn't apply to everyone on the spectrum, sometimes the alternatives are just too clunky and it will have to do. There are areas where every term you use creates some problem or other and when that's the case, you may have to prioritise clarity over scrupulous inclusiveness.

[littlemissalien]

Im right on the borderline of being declared legally 'partially sighted' but with my glasses on I'm still a functionally useful member of society and rarely need any adjustments or adaptations.

Just as I tend to say I'm 'hearing impaired' (I hate 'hard of hearing' as it makes no sense to me) I also say I am 'visually impaired' because my sight problems go much deeper than the usual, but I am not 'blind' and would be offended to be called that seriously (although jokes about my 'blindness' are long running and plenty). Hence I also left that option unticked.

I gave up on colourful tabs because it didn't work with my theme and I prefer an overall theme where I can pick colours which work well with my vision - as I have scotopic sensitivity some colours render text unreadable and I found colourful tabs did that (and I couldn't be bothered faffing around setting which colours would work for me, as I'm a lazy bint).

[littlemissalien]

Oh and don't get me started on 'specially abled'. I do not need to be told I'm special, I have enough self-worth thank-you! Not to mention the term 'special' being used mockingly as well.

If someone is offended by 'disabled' I will often substitute 'differently abled' which hasn't caused me problems before, but it's all so subjective really.

[elettaria]

I have to say that "differently abled" puts my hackles up as well, it just sounds to me like it's one step away from "specially abled". OK, several steps, that last one is ghastly, but my main point is that disabilities do not magically confer other abilities. There isn't really any term that even approaches being perfect. All the ones which lay emphasis on "special" or "challenged" or "different" further position people with disabilities as Other, and I think contribute towards the stereotype of the brave little crip making a big effort to be a valuable member of society, which in turn conjures up its partner stereotype of us all as lazy scroungers. It's so difficult to avoid highly charged language, and neutrality is something we really need here

[littlemissalien]

I tend to use Irlen Filter to apply a light orange tint to the whole screen and that way things are much better

[elettaria]

Is this the software that overlays the whole screen? Glad it works for someone. I found that because it made the dark colours lighter and moved everything however many steps towards the chosen colour, the contrast was too poor and it felt like looking through a fog. I've done quite well with putting coloured plastic overlays on top of the screen, at least visually: they attract dirt like you've never seen and they're always falling off, plus I have to take them off and put them on whenever I want to watch a film on the laptop. Apart from that, they do help but I find that changing the background colour will still be more comfortable where possible. I think I'm a medium contrast gal, as opposed to high or low contrast

[elettaria]

On second thoughts, apparently you can use ColorfulTabs so that your chosen domains are in the colours you choose and all other tabs are uncoloured, which would be better for you if you decided that colouring some tabs was of any use.

[andrewducker]

The Royal National Institute of Blind People refers to themselves as "supporting blind and partially sighted people"
http://www.rnib.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

[elettaria]

Bugger, I knew I'd left something out, although personally I feel that "partially sighted" and "visually impaired" are very similar in terms of tone. Personally I prefer "visually impaired" because it covers eye problems which don't include actual loss of sight (I don't have sight loss but as I can't read a book I do have a substantial level of visual impairment), but for general terms both are useful. I agree that where possible a longer explanation is better, when there's space for it.

[eye_of_a_cat]

I feel that "partially sighted" and "visually impaired" are very similar in terms of tone.

'Visually impaired' covers a much wider spectrum, IMO; I'd describe myself as 'visually impaired', but not as 'partially sighted', which does usually suggest a much more significant degree of impairment than I've got. And when people do tend to assume that an impairment like mine affects my vision more significantly than it does, I'd rather avoid using any term that would exacerbate the misunderstanding!

We used 'visually impaired' in my last job in student accessibility issues for the same reason; we had a lot of different students with a huge range of visual impairments, and that term was broad enough to apply to all of them.