The Hidden Prejudice in our Language: Where does it come from and how can we change it?

By Daisy How

The disability perception gap (source) in the UK states that 1 in 3 disabled people feel there is prejudice towards disability, whereas only in 1 in 5 non-disabled people would agree with this. Perhaps the reason for this difference in perception stems from more deep-rooted and disguised reasons. History has not also been so open towards people with disabilities and perhaps some of that bias has slipped into our everyday language and attitudes. While most people today would consider themselves tolerant to all people, it is still important to look at how our language can stigmatise and separate disabled people from society, and how we can change our language to close that perception gap.

Throughout history, disability has been associated with all sorts of vile stories and name- calling. The categorisation of disabled people as an ‘other’ and a outlier of society was an accepted view and has been used to physically and socially separate them from others.

In the Witch Hunts of the 17th Century (source) women with singled out for physical deformities and mental illness as it was associated with evil and witchcraft and were put through torture, usually ending in a brutal death.

The 19th Century was a period focused on eugenics and selective breeding, with attention turning to the new idea of natural selection [source]. It was popularly believed that the rich and the powerful were genetically more superior to the poor or, in most cases, the disabled, and it circulated that people with disabilities shouldn’t engage in reproduction in order to fade them out of society.

In 1867 the ‘Ugly Act’ (source) was created to remove unsightly beggars from the street, which essentially singled out those who had physical deformities. Cruel words were used to describe those who were subject to the act like ‘mutilated’ and ‘disgusting’. While this is obviously not the society we have today, it is still disturbing to know that the last arrest of the ‘Ugly Act’ was in 1974, and that our stigma to those with physical differences was still present in society not so long ago.

The history of the changing attitudes and language about disabled people has a clear ‘Us versus them’ narrative, labelling disabled people as outsiders to society. Disabilities have been viewed as a sign of sin and immorality (source)leading us to words such as imbecile, cripple and gimp, and people were classified with insulting and humiliating terms like retarded, deformed or spastic.

The language used toward people with disabilities today has significantly changed and most of these terms are considered derogatory and inappropriate. The government and society (source)have made huge efforts to close this gap through better education about disabilities, equal opportunity for all abilities and huge leaps in technology. As language has changed words have gained new meaning such as ‘lame’ which is more about social ineptitude rather than an insult to someone’s ability, turning this word away from its origins.

Furthermore, like the LGBTQ+ community have done with the word queer, the disabled community have semantically reclaimed the word crip (source)as something that empowers them and has positive associations. A voice has been given to the disabled community to help find out how we can adapt our attitudes and language to make them feel safer and more included. In 2010, for example, Rosa’s Law (source),which aimed to show disability as diversity over a classification, changed the term mental retardation to intellectual disabled.

It is important to address, however, that our language is still riddled with ableist euphemisms (source) and terminology which reenforce this idea of ostracising those with disabilities. A person who is criminal or unlawful is crooked. If someone says something which is not true, they are left without a leg to stand on. Of course, sayings like this are meant harmlessly, but it’s interesting to note the roots of where they come from.

Similarly, many insults today stem from terms used to describe disabilities in the past like idiot, imbecile and the example we talked about above, lame. Although, their use as an insult today is a lot broader, they were originally used as a derogatory term to talk about those who had intellectual disabilities. Perhaps this explains the differences in the disability perception gap, because while these terms are used with less negative associations, they can be received and heard by others from a derogatory or insulting perspective.

The conversation today around the language towards disability is focused on changing this idea of categorising a person by their ability. A lot of the discussion has been around identity first versus person first language (source) (for example, blind person versus person who is blind) which aims to show that someone is a person before they are their disability. For many people with disabilities this is important as it is one step in the direction of not defining someone entirely by their disability. However, there is the debate that while it is a positive thing to create that separation, it is also negates the disability as something which needs to be disconnected. Additionally, in an attempt to see disability as a diversity rather than a categorisation it does the opposite, as we never say a person who is Asian or a person who is a girl. Opening up this discussion though is important and finding out how we can change our language and perceptions is exactly what is needed to close the disability perception gap.

It is difficult to look understand how our words and actions can affect someone else if we haven’t been in that situation ourselves. The disability perception gap shows that despite people thinking they are tolerant and open to people with disabilities, there is still some underlying reasons why they feel prejudiced against. The history towards those with disabilities has also ostracised those who were different thinking and looking from society, and it has unknowingly and unconsciously trickled down into our perceptions and language today. That is why the best way to close this gap and open the community is to start with ourselves.