If I had to give up one word that I use regularly, I think that word would be, "disability"
WordPress has these daily writing prompts and while I often just ignore them, this one caught my attention. If i had to give up a word that I use frequently, I think that word would be “disability”. Disability is a word that is really hard for me to avoid, especially given my work and given that, well, I have a disability. And yet I feel the word often seems to create division. In many respects it’s a sort of label: Does that person have a disability? Do they identify as having a disability? Are they a person with a disability? Are they disabled? If two people use the word disability, are they even talking about the same thing?
No matter how we phrase it, I find the word, disability, to be very labeling and rarely is that a good thing. This isn’t to say that I have anything against people identifying with their specific “disability”, (I actually think that doing so is a positive thing), but the word “disability” itself has come to encompass so many things that it’s becoming challenging to define. Consider the CDC’s definition of disability:
A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).
CDC | Disability and Health Overview
Heck, that definition describes a lot of people before they’ve had their first cup of coffee in the morning, doesn’t it? The interesting thing about the CDC’s definition is that it talks about “more difficult to do” and not inability to do. I think that’s great except I don’t think it’s possible to remove the word ability from disability, no matter how it’s defined.
So, if I think of a word that I use too often and would love to get rid of, “disability” is the word that comes to mind for me. And yet if I were to challenge myself to not use the word for a week, or even a day, I’m not entirely sure I could do it.