In the US and many countries, people with less than 10 percent normal sight are considered legally blind.\u2019 In the UK and other countries sometimes this group is called \u2018Registered Blind\u201d as some nations keep a formal registry of their blind citizens. Registered and legally blind are legalistic terms. For other purposes it\u2019s best simply to call users people who are blind, blind people or people who have low vision.<\/strong>\u200d<\/p>\n You may have heard of the newer term ableism. It\u2019s a modern concept for when non-disabled people think of themselves as \u2018normal\u2019 and people with disabilities as exceptions. Just as racism assigns different values to races, ableism calls into focus the non-equal treatment of people with disabilities. Sometimes ableist thought creeps into our terminology, so we present below some examples of terminology to avoid:<\/p>\n A trend in recent decades has been to advise that references to disability be framed using a \u2018person-first\u2019 construction, i.e., \u201cpeople with disabilities\u201d rather than \u201cdisabled people\u201d. Further incarnations of this trend would make for phrases such as \u201ca person with blindness\u201d. The belief has been that terms of disability are somehow negative and need to be intentionally balanced by pointing out that the disability is attached to a person.<\/p>\n Trouble is, this is a special construction used only for disability. One might never say, for example, \u201ca woman with riches\u201d. The word rich isn\u2019t considered derogatory and so we\u2019d normally say \u201ca rich woman\u201d. Rather than making disability language different, it\u2019s encouraged to avoid the old formats and construct phrases like \u201ca blind woman\u201d and so forth.<\/p>\n The tools that blind people use are sometimes different from those used by sighted people. But they are not inferior or substitutes. Rather they are all called alternative techniques. The thought that what blind people use is inferior creeps into old-fashioned language and conveys a sense of difference. Here are some examples of outdated and modern tones:<\/p>\n Rev.\u00a0 May 2024<\/p>\n Copyright c. 2024 Be My eyes<\/p>\nPart 1 – Terms to avoid<\/h2>\n
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Part 2 – Unbuttoning the person-first straightjacket<\/h2>\n
Part 3 – Avoiding Negative Tone or Second-Class Thinking<\/h2>\n
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