Beyond Disability-Affirming Language: A Series of Political and Cultural Considerations

article, disability 11 Minutes

by Natalia Iwanek

As Canadian and US-based editing spheres slowly become increasingly disability-affirming through a focus on terminology and accessibility, considering larger frameworks, historical processes, and political and cultural contexts results in a more comprehensive understanding of disability and ableism – and how both exist in relation to various intersectional identities and systemic oppressions. This article is based on a program I presented for Editors Toronto in January.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Content warning: Mentions of systemic oppressions, illness, war, and death.

Positionality, Terminology, and Frameworks

The disability community is vast and nuanced, and this article is simply one perspective influenced by authors, writers, and activists in the disability rights/justice movements in mainly Canadian/US socio-political contexts. Furthermore, it is processed through the lens of my personal disabilities, lived experiences, privileges, marginalizations, as well as my internalized/lateral ableism and implicit biases. As always, defer to how individual disabled people identify and the language they use to best describe their lived experiences.

While framed in Canadian/US English, identity-first language, and a radical theoretical model of disability, this article avoids “best practices,” prescriptivism, and any sort of “correct or incorrect usage.” Instead, it is structured in four sections, each with a series of “considerations” for you to reflect on and apply your personal experiences to. The goal is to look beyond disability-affirming language and consider how ableism translates into real-life consequences – not only for disabled people, but for everyone.

Section 1: Disability as a Concept and Identity

How do we conceptualize disability?

First, let’s look at a quote from Jasbir K. Puar in The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017):

In a context whereby four-fifths of the world’s people with disabilities are located in what was once hailed as the “global south,” liberal interventions are invariably infused with certitude that disability should be reclaimed as a valuable difference – the difference of the Other – through rights, visibility, and empowerment discourses – rather than addressing how much debilitation is caused by global injustice and the war machines of colonialism, occupation, and US imperialism.

Considerations: How do you conceptualize disability? On a personal level? Individual level? Collective level? Structural level? How does disability exist? What has influenced this conceptualization?

Who identifies as disabled?

Another quote, also from Puar, explains it:

[Disability activist Mia] Mingus highlights populations (institutionalized, incarcerated, racialized) for whom claiming the term and identity of disability is difficult given many are already stigmatized as non-normative, and deemed in need of fixing, by the medical-industrial complex. Claiming that the “disabled people who identify as ‘(politically) disabled’ are often white disabled people,” Mingus continues: “Over and over I meet disabled women of color who do not identify as disabled, even though they have the lived reality of being disabled. And this is for many complicated reasons around race, ability, gender, access… It can be very dangerous.”

Considerations: What consequences does this type of identification have on your local community? What about on a more national or global scale?

Section 2: Disability and Language

Prescriptivism in language and activist spaces

Keeping these two quotes in mind, let’s move on to a recent conversation about disability-affirming language choices by s.e. smith and Anna Hamilton. “Language conversations have become highly performative, with a fixation on the words people are using, not why they’re using them or what they’re reaching for…” The authors continue that “[c]onversations about language were supposed to be a starting point rather than an end, and one accessible to newcomers curious to learn more about disability. Instead, they have joined the realm of the activism checklist, a performance rather than a praxis. Sometimes criticizing language use actually directly harms the disability community via lateral disablism. It can also be harmful for other marginalized communities by introducing behavioural expectations that don’t reflect the realities of their lived experience – for example, piling on to an English language learner for ‘bad’ word use.” 

Considerations: Have you experienced this type of situation in the editing sphere? What was the outcome, if any? In what other ways can prescriptivism harm marginalized communities?

Simultaneously avoiding prescriptivism and dehumanization

While avoiding prescriptivism is incredibly important, language can be weaponized to dehumanize the disability community and all intersectional marginalized communities via explicit political messaging. For example, recent rhetoric about migrants and immigrants has used “animals,” “parasites,” “plagues,” “infestations,” “aliens,” “illegals,” and “criminals.”

Other times, dehumanizing terminology is less overt. For example, dog whistles, and subtly disguised or coded political messaging – such as “protecting our women; protecting our culture” – target predominantly racialized immigrants and migrants.

But what about language that is far more subtle and benign-sounding? Let’s deconstruct a recent media trope, namely “hard-working immigrants who contribute to society.” This sounds fine, right? (And what does this have to do with disability-affirming language?) Let’s tie it back to a principle of disability justice from Sins Invalid, which states, “People have inherent worth outside of commodity relations and capitalist notions of productivity.”

Considerations: Are we more than our ability to labour and produce?

Let’s take this thought even further. What about migrants and immigrants who cannot work or are disabled? (And what about their working conditions?) What about disabled people in general? People on social assistance? People who are unemployed or underemployed? In situations of houselessness, addiction, crisis, and so on? Do all people deserve safety and dignity even if they are not hard-working, productive, etc.?

Now, let’s tie this all together. Dehumanization and oppression are intertwined with ableism, because ableism, much like racism, xenophobia, and classism (along with transphobia, homophobia, etc.), deems certain bodies non-normative (or in some way different from dominant society) and in need of policing.

Historically, ableist policies – such as euthanasia, sterilization, and institutionalization – not only affected (and continue to affect) the intersectional disability community, but also racialized people, immigrants, migrants, political dissidents, and those who did (and do) not conform to cis-heteronormative norms. For instance, historical US ableist laws, such as the so-called “Ugly Laws” (which focused on ensuring those with disabilities did not appear in public), were rooted in classist “Vagrancy Laws” (which criminalized poverty and unemployment). These can also be linked to racist  “Black Codes” and Jim Crow-era laws after Emancipation.

Considerations: How do these constitute disability justice issues: the targeting of racialized immigrants, migrants, and locals in Minneapolis; policies targeting trans individuals in Alberta; the tearing down of tent cities in Toronto; and government messaging about immunocompromised and older people during the pandemic.

Section 3: Disability Representation in the Media

Media portrayal of disability

While policies and laws ebb and flow, one way ableism consistently survives is through language, reinforced through the arts and the media (literature, film, imagery, newspaper headlines).

Considerations:

  • How is disability often portrayed in terms of race, ethnicity, class, faith, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, size, status, and so forth? Are the disabilities apparent or non-apparent? Are they dynamic (fluctuating) or non-dynamic? 
  • What tropes and stereotypes are common? Whose stories are being (and not being) told? Is agency apparent? 
  • What theoretical model of disability is prominent? (Medical? Charity? Socio-political? Radical?)

Deconstructing ableism/intersecting oppressions in media headlines

Ableist messaging is also reinforced through legacy media, either through language, bias, and framing in the headlines and/or stories themselves, or through their revelation of societal attitudes and assumptions. Let’s review recent newspaper headlines to consider how casually ableism (and intersecting oppressions) occurs, and how we, as editors, can apply a critical lens when coming across these types of instances.

When reading the following headlines, what do you notice about the use of specific terminology, tropes and stereotypes, framing and bias, political and business agendas, and identity representation? What are the real-life consequences?

Example 1: Accessibility practices

Considerations: What are the benefits of accessibility best practices, such as font style and size, alt text, and/or plain language in government communications? Which communities are served by these practices? How are changes aimed at dismantling accessibility processes – and more broadly, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) – tied to racism, xenophobia, and classism? (The conversation about accessible fonts is ongoing, including accessible fonts for online text and for in-print text.)

Example 2: Use of slurs

Considerations: Both the terms r*** and “c***” are slurs. Has the use of all types of dehumanizing slurs increased recently, especially from people in positions of power? Why? In addition, historically, what has been the result of casual (and sometimes unintentional) use of slurs?

Example 3: Hierarchies of “worthiness”

Considerations: What are the potential results of public policy that considers certain populations to be an acceptable loss in a bid to return to “normal”? Is this eugenicist rhetoric?

Example 4: Ableism in the medical sphere

Considerations: Hydroxychloroquine is commonly used to treat various autoimmune diseases, such as lupus. What did the act of hoarding essential medication from those who require it on a daily basis reveal about society’s treatment of and attitudes toward chronic illness and/or disability? What were the consequences?

Example 5: “Othering”

Considerations: Thinking historically, what have been the consequences of framing marginalized populations, those who dissent against public policy, those who live outside of cis-heteronormativity, or those who are simply deemed “different” or “undesirable” against dominant society?

Example 6: Medical racism/xenophobia, sexism, and classism

Considerations: What sorts of outcomes do medical racism/sexism, biased research, implicit bias, classism, and one-dimensional representation of disability have for marginalized groups? Could it be misdiagnoses, missed diagnoses, under-diagnoses, denial of care, death?

Example 7: Environmental racism

Considerations: Why are areas with environmental toxins/waste often placed near marginalized communities, leading to increased levels of illness, disability, and death? (One example could be the rising cancer rates in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, a historically Black community by which a dump was built for the refineries and industrial plants, in what has been termed the “Chemical Valley” of Ontario, near Aamjiwnaang First Nation.)

Example 8: Disability and agency

Considerations: What do stories that focus on caregivers, even unintentionally, say about disabled peoples’ agency, stories, and lives?

Example 9: Prejudice toward Autism

Considerations: Since there is no Autism “epidemic,” what does this type of rhetoric infer about the existence of Autistic and all neurodiverse people? Now take this further and think about why this is a slippery slope for all kinds of human diversity in general. Consider disability, mental health, gender non-conformity, and so on.

Example 10: Preconceptions on disability

Considerations: Are preconceived notions about what disability looks like and who is disabled rooted in racism, sizeism, and classism? (Think about the “disability fakers” and “disabled villains” tropes in the arts.) What does this say about dynamic disabilities (that fluctuate) and ambulatory wheelchair users? What consequences does this type of sensationalism have?

Example 11: Accessibility policies

Considerations: Are accessibility policies beneficial for all (known as the “curb-cut effect”)? Would universal design (design that begins from accessibility for as many as possible) solve these issues? Should accessibility and disability have broader definitions (such as pregnancy)? Why should someone slightly taller or bigger have to pay for upgrades or extra seats? What outcome does framing disability in a hierarchical fashion or as conflicting with other access needs have, instead of simply accommodating all access needs? Is this a result of a lack of public funding? Is this a result of ableism?

Example 12: War and disability

Considerations: How is war a disability justice issue? How is it a mass disabling event? Does disability impede people’s ability to flee (as well as their loved ones)? Are existing disabilities exacerbated/new disabilities developed? Does it lead to a lack of medications, mobility aids, treatments, health care workers, and essential care? Does the lack of infrastructure and access to food, water, and medicine lead to further disabled populations and further displacement? Is this intentional? What are the long-term consequences of war, genocide, displacement, and migration?

(For those who would like to consider this topic further, Decolonizing Editing by Dr. Amber Riaz is a fantastic resource that helped, in part, inspire this section, along with those who always send me newspaper links to discuss and deconstruct examples of ableism. Additional helpful webinars that have influenced me include Some of the Things You Wanted to Know about Alt Text (Editors Canada, Dr. Amber Riaz), Microaggressions in Editing: Understanding Bias and Undoing Harm (Editorial Freelancers Association, Crystal Shelley), and Radical Copyediting: Prioritizing Care Over Correctness (Editorial Freelancers Association, Alex Kapitan.)

Section 4: Putting It All Together

Beyond disability-affirming language: Final considerations

Finally, with all that we have considered in this article, how can we, as editors (and just as regular people), create change?

  • Do you consider the historical context of current language choices? 
  • Do you train in and apply disability-affirming, plain, inclusive and conscious language, and accessibility principles (such as alt text) in your editing work?
  • Do you offer resources and options for slurs, euphemisms, tropes, and stereotypes? Do you suggest authenticity readers?
  • Do you read widely and diversely in both fiction and non-fiction? Do you approach media (books, movies, series, newspapers) critically? (What stereotypes and tropes are present? Where do they stem from? What are their consequences?)
  • Do you advocate for inclusive hiring practices and accessibility policies and practices at your workplace?
  • On a personal level, do your daily actions create a more accessible world for the disability community and beyond? (Can you become involved in community organizing, mutual aid networks, etc.? Can you use a respiratory mask in public spaces, especially in essential services, such as medical institutions, pharmacies, grocery stores, and transportation? If possible, can you use a respiratory mask in public generally?)
  • On a structural level, do you question government spending and foreign policy, budget cuts to services, increased hostile architecture, and medical and environmental racism, as well as advocate for universal design?

Conclusions

Through disability justice-based theories and frameworks and activism, and a consideration of historical processes, intersectional oppressions, and political messaging and culture, we can try to understand the world from a lens that values liberation for all people. One way to do this is to reimagine disability and accessibility by learning about the effects of colonialism and imperialism in creating disability on Turtle Island and globally, as well as the very conceptualization of disability, instead of considering these as a burden, a tragedy, an afterthought, or something that doesn’t affect us all. Disability is a spectrum – apparent, non-apparent; dynamic, non-dynamic; permanent, temporary; and all the ways in-between – many of us exist along it, and most of us will experience in it our lifetimes, whether on a personal or community level. So keep advocating for structural change, keep disrupting narratives and attitudes that marginalize, keep considering, keep the conversation going, keep learning and unlearning through the sources, resources, and readings that have inspired this work, and, above all, keep cripping the field of editing by disrupting and questioning ableist assumptions, attitudes, norms, and structures.

Natalia Iwanek (she/they) is a chronically ill and disabled copy editor, proofreader, and translator who focuses on accessibility, plain language, and inclusive language. Natalia’s days are filled with working on a master’s of Spanish translation and overthinking language, life, and disability in a liminal space between Northern Mexico, Central Canada, and Eastern Europe.

This article was copy edited by Piu Chowdhury, a Toronto-based writer.

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Published by Editors Toronto

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