I work in an accessibility-focused field and can say person-first verbiage is more important for those with visible/ serious conditions that society tends to focus on over them as a person.
The spirit is that you view them as a person, instead of a their condition. It might seem obvious, but imagine you have a very visible physical disability. People are always talking about your condition, asking you about it, it’s the first thing people focus on when they meet you. As a person, you don’t want your condition to define who you are. As an example, if you worked really hard to win a major award, would you prefer the headline “First Name Last Name Wins Award”, or “Severely Autistic Person Wins Award”?
It’s fairly nuanced, and within some groups (such as ASD) there is actually pushback against person-first. But then there’s people that it really helps so it’s more of a “just be chill and not a dick about things” kind of vibe. Kind of like pronouns where some people make a huge fuss whenever they’re mentioned. In reality, it’s more about just treating people with respect as well as not walking on eggshells around everyone.
The convoluted one puts an emphasis on a person, not on a disability. I am aware of my disability always, I don’t need a special day for it. A day to recognize me might be nice however. That sort of logic.
I think it stems from a movement to stop identifying people first by their disability. I think along the lines of the difference between “Here’s a disabled person” or “Here’s a person who happens to have a disability.” Lots of people would rather be first identified as a person.
But I have to have a way to look down on people who are sympathetic to my cause but aren’t serially online. How else will everyone know I’m more compassionate than you?
Wtf is that event name? That is possibly the most convoluted way to write “disability awareness day”.
I work in an accessibility-focused field and can say person-first verbiage is more important for those with visible/ serious conditions that society tends to focus on over them as a person.
The spirit is that you view them as a person, instead of a their condition. It might seem obvious, but imagine you have a very visible physical disability. People are always talking about your condition, asking you about it, it’s the first thing people focus on when they meet you. As a person, you don’t want your condition to define who you are. As an example, if you worked really hard to win a major award, would you prefer the headline “First Name Last Name Wins Award”, or “Severely Autistic Person Wins Award”?
It’s fairly nuanced, and within some groups (such as ASD) there is actually pushback against person-first. But then there’s people that it really helps so it’s more of a “just be chill and not a dick about things” kind of vibe. Kind of like pronouns where some people make a huge fuss whenever they’re mentioned. In reality, it’s more about just treating people with respect as well as not walking on eggshells around everyone.
The convoluted one puts an emphasis on a person, not on a disability. I am aware of my disability always, I don’t need a special day for it. A day to recognize me might be nice however. That sort of logic.
I am aware of my personhood always, and don’t need any special emphasis on it.
It’s literally the same logic that led to “people of color”, just applied to having a disability.
They had to find something between #DayOfRememberanceOfThoseWithDifferingAbilities and #CrippleDay.
But yeah, it does seem off.
“Persons With Differing Abilities” is just a few steps down the euphemism treadmill from where we are now. Give it twenty years.
“Handicapable Day”
I think it stems from a movement to stop identifying people first by their disability. I think along the lines of the difference between “Here’s a disabled person” or “Here’s a person who happens to have a disability.” Lots of people would rather be first identified as a person.
Shrug.
The idea that an adjective being literally first in a phrase, determining what a person “is identified as” first, is ridiculous.
Agreed, that’s just a quirk of English. Not a problem in Spanish.
But I have to have a way to look down on people who are sympathetic to my cause but aren’t serially online. How else will everyone know I’m more compassionate than you?
DAD is a much better acronym.