Disability – out of sight, out of mind. Historically, and in many societies, disability has been stigmatised, shamed and shunned. In western cultures disabled people have been segregated into institutions, locked in back rooms and attics, so that the community could forget that we existed, and we didn’t embarrass anyone.
This is still the case in many cultures today, where disabled people are kept hidden away in back rooms, or denied schooling or employment, and kept away from community engagement.
Accompanying this discomfort about disability, people developed euphemisms. Words that could be used instead of the big awkward disability word. Most of these words have entered common usage and are still with us today – differently abled, special, etc.
One of the most popular euphemisms for disability is the word inclusion. Inclusion means nothing like disability, yet it has often been used interchangeably with the word disability to mean the same thing.
In the early part of the 21st century, disability rights activists started insisting on the use of the word disability. This insistence has since become a key plank of the disability rights and disability pride movements. Disability activists are openly disabled and proud to be who we are. We no longer accept being hidden away in back rooms or institutions, drugged and kept quiet. The fight to end such practices continues, but it is now well underway.
More crucially this century, disability rights are now covered by an international treaty that has become one of the most supported within the international rights system.
As part of the insistence on disability being more open and disabled people being considered part of the broader community, disability rights activists also insisted on the establishment of government policy units focussed on disability, and on having disabled people working within those units. More recently there have also been ministers for disability, though it is still rare for these ministers to be disabled people.
Having open conversations about disability within government and having disability on the political agenda have been instrumental in outcomes like the NDIS, the National Disability Strategy, and the increasing realisation that disabled people must be part of the public discourse on disability.
Despite these gains, it is vital that we remain vigilant. Recently, several major federal government initiatives were rebadged to remove the word disability and returned to the use of euphemisms. Specifically, that old favourite: inclusion.
In the early part of this century the word inclusion was often used to replace the word disability and slowly but surely this meant that disability policy was sidelined and forgotten. It slid off the agenda, got wrapped up into broader policy areas, and was consigned to the outer fringes of public discourse. Using euphemisms allowed people to forget that they were working on disability. Slowly but surely, disability became invisible.
The heavy use of euphemisms, like inclusion, two decades ago means that disabled people are now well behind other marginalised communities in reaching equality. It has taken twenty years of hard work to reclaim government and public focus, to be remembered and recentred within our own space. It has taken twenty years of hard work to support governments to get more comfortable using the word disability. To acknowledge us, to be openly working towards disability equality.
By returning to the word inclusion, by reverting to euphemisms for disability, this hard work is now in danger of being lost. Disabled people are in danger of returning to invisibility in public policy or programs. This is unacceptable.
Words do matter. Using the word disability matters.
