I would like to share with you a discovery that I made a month ago when writing an article.
I always have my thesaurus on hand when I'm writing something. I had already finished editing my article when I realized that I had never looked for the word in my life "disabled" to see what he found.
Let me explain what I read:
"Handicapped", adjective: "crippled, helpless, useless, destroyed, immobilized, crippled, wounded, shattered, lame, maimed, tired, wasted, weakened, powerless, neutered, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, sick, exhausted, exhausted , with nervous breakdown, eliminated; see also wounded, useless, and weak. Antonyms: healthy, strong, capable. »
I was reading this out loud to a friend and at first I was laughing, it was so ridiculous but I had just just read "shattered" when my voice cracked and I had to stop and recover from it. emotional shock and the impact that the assault of these words unleashed.
Of course this was my old tatty old thesaurus and I thought it must be an old edition. However it was an edition from the 80s.
According to this definition, it seems that a disabled person has nothing positive to contribute to the world. Today there are disabled people famous for the opportunities and adventures that life has given them.
I immediately went looking for the 2010 online edition hoping to find a revision worth considering. The updated version of this word is unfortunately not much better.
Therefore, it is not just a matter of words. It is what we believe about people when we refer to them with these words. It's about the values behind the words, and how we build those values. Our language affects our way of thinking and how we see the world and how we see other people. In fact, many ancient societies, including the Greeks and Romans, believed that speaking a curse verbally was very powerful because saying it out loud made it come true.
So what is the reality that we want to create: that of a person who is limited or that of a person who is in control of himself?
Via: Aimee Mullins conference (world record at the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 1996). Transcription made by recursosdeautoayuda.com
I leave you a VIDEO on disability: