The Power of Words

I am an avid reader and a prolific writer of (fan)fiction, a professional translator and an enthusiastic editor. I am fluent in two languages, and working on learning three others. I guess you could say, then, that I like words, their meanings and their histories. I understand that a single word can have different meanings depending on its context, and that this meaning can change through time.

The words to speak of the disabled community are no exception to this rule. There were times where calling someone a cripple, a retard or a moron was completely acceptable. Today, not so much.

I have also seen, however, people pushing for the abolition of words such as idiot, deaf or dumb, calling them ableist slurs, and while I see where this classification comes from, I do not agree with it. The definitions of words evolve, as I said above, and, in my opinion, the ableist definitions are old and have been replaced by new meanings through common mainstream use, making those words, used in most contexts, quite innocuous.

Note: As I say, this article is only my personal opinion! Just because I think some words are harmless does not mean you need to think so too. In fact, knowing that these words bother some people, I try not to use them in public.

A Short Glossary of Disability

When I started working for a tour operator, I had a whole new lingo to learn, that of travel, tourism and airplanes. Each one of my areas of study – biology, translation and publishing – came with a vocabulary I had to master. For each of my interests, I have a set of words to get to know.

And the same goes for when I joined the online disabled community, there were lots of terms that were new to me that I had to learn to be able to join conversations without sounding like a total newbie. Some of them I now use a lot, and you’ll probably come across them on this blog, if you haven’t already, so I thought I’d write up a quick glossary of all these new terms!

Your Health Condition May Cause an Accident

A few weeks ago, I woke up to CHOM 97.7, as always, and heard the following commercial:

Man: Pete didn’t take into account his low blood sugar caused by his diabetes. He didn’t take into account the fact that he forgot to measure his blood sugar level. He didn’t take into account the fact that he’s at the wheel of his car. He didn’t take into account the fact that he could lose consciousness while driving. He didn’t take into account the fact that he could drive right off the shoulder and flip his vehicle.

Woman: If you don’t take it into account, your health condition could cause an accident, regardless of your age. A message from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec.

“Huh, what a weird ad,” I thought. “I’m not sure what its point is…”