Your Words Matter- People First Language

"The pen is mightier than the sword"- we have all heard this well known saying. The words that we say and write often have more power than we realize. We can use this power either to hurt or to heal. One way that we can use the power of language is to help others feel included. We can do this by making sure that we refer to individuals with disabilities not by their disease or disability first, but by making it known that first and foremost, they are a person the same as any person without a disability.

People first language means that instead of saying "the disabled person," we flip those words around to recognize the person and not the ability first by saying "the person with a disability" instead. This ensures that individuals with disabilities can still feel like seen, recognized, and important. Individuals with physical and/or mental disabilities are more than their disabilities, they are people with thoughts and feelings.