Some food for thought…

I would just like to share something with you that happened today. I was doing some research on an assignment where we have to find some kind of assistive technology and write a little bit about it. I decided to try to find a mobile app to do mine on. I found this one called iPrompts. It is an app where you can create schedules with pictures, give individuals choices between 2 things, and it has a timer where you can time how long until an activity ends or starts.
Here is a video if you would like to check out what the iPrompts app is about.

I saw on the company's website that in their mission they had written "disabled persons". This goes against what I have been taught over and over again in my education classes. We always talk about people first language, which is stating the individual first and then the disability. Because after all, the disability is just a part of that person and it doesn't define who they are.

So after reading this I thought, "I'm going to email them and tell them what I think about this." That was at 12:08 today and when I got out of class, I saw that I got a response at 1:26. The response said as follows:

“Nicole,
Thanks for the suggestion. As the father of a boy with autism, I am all for being sensitive. We will incorporate your suggestion next time we make changes to our website.”

That just makes me feel like I have made a minor difference in the field of special education. Sure it isn’t that much, but it is still something.

This also leads me to something else. Does it really matter if you state the person first or the disability first? I believe that it does. I’ve had arguments with some people and they don’t think that it matters. But I truly believe that you should always talk about the person first and then the disability, because they aren’t a disability, they are a person. I would love if we could get everyone in the world to believe this but that would be an impossible task. So because I can’t change the world, I will just continue to try and change the people around me. I want to encourage everyone else to do the same. When you hear someone talk about a person with a disability, if they mention the disability first, just politely suggest to them that they use people first language. Well, that’s all for now. Please leave me your comments and share this post with a friend!