Inclusive content: disabilities and conditions

[sarawilcox]

Use this issue to discuss the inclusive content page about disabilities and conditions in the service manual.

[SusieWd]

RNIB gave a presentation at a session on inclusive language and health, organised by the Patient Information Forum (PIF).

RNIB shared that:

• everyone with sight loss will describe themselves differently
• someone born with little or no sight wouldn’t identify with ‘sight loss’ as they never had sight to lose
• many people registered blind wouldn’t identify as blind as they still use their sight for some things
• usually they would say children have a visual impairment, not sight loss
• we should see the person, not the sight loss, and say ‘a person who is/has…’ not ‘a visually impaired person…’

The RNIB said there are exceptions, for example some people may identify themselves as a blind person. But generally, you’re unlikely to offend or alienate someone by using ‘people with a…’ phrases.

At the same session organised by PIF, the Hypermobility Syndromes Association (HSA) spoke about the person-first and disability-first models of talking: see ticket on disability or impairment and the social model, and how the HSA uses both, depending on their audience

[sarawilcox]

Some feedback on this page:

I’m disappointed to see no specific reference to neurodiversity. I think there needs to be a comment about using, for example, autistic people rather than people with autism (as per the social model of disability already referred to) and not ‘learning disabilities and autism’ or LDA. Also to explain neurodiversity as an umbrella term for a whole range of brain differences which are not necessarily associated with cognitive impairment or learning disabilities and which should not be regarded as ‘disorders’, with an emphasis on support to succeed and use the positive attributes often associated with neurodivergence, such as ability to think differently about problems, an eye for detail or expertise and knowledge in a very specific topic.

Note, we also have a separate GitHub issue for cognitive diversity.