Are you ready for a change?

People First Language
Words matter! It's time time to embrace more respectful ways of talking. And you can download the People First Language pledge!

New Attitudes
Everything begins with our attitudes, so check out these articles first and learn how the ways you think impact your own life and the life of people with disabilities.

Language and Communication
Words matter! The words we use create the reality of our lives. We need change on two fronts: how we think and talk about people with disabilities and the ways we communicate with one another.

Strategies for All
We need new, improved, and effective strategies to create positive change. Some strategies are changes we make in our actions; others are new methods to help children and adults with disabilities live the lives they want.

Children-Families-Education
Education, therapies, family relationships, etc., are influential factors in the lives of children and their families. The articles in this section can ensure today's children are on a path to success as adults.

Professionals-Organizations
Professionals of all types, disability-related organizations, as well as churches, youth groups, recreational facilities, and other community groups can make changes in how they operate and change the lives of people with disabilities in the process.

Conventional wisdom (today's policies, programs, and services that are part and parcel of the Disability-Industrial Complex) isn’t working. We can do better!

• We can rediscover our common sense and recognize that people with disabilities are people, first: they’re ordinary human beings who have the same wants, needs, desires, and dreams as others. People with disabilities are more like people without disabilities than different!


• We don’t need to change them, we need to change our attitudes and perceptions, which will lead to changes in how we think, what we say, and what we do.


• We have the power to reclaim our common sense, practice new ways of thinking and talking, and embrace strategies that can enable children and adults with disabilities to live real lives—and to pursue the American Dream just like everyone else.

There have always been people with disabilities in the world, and there always will be. Disability—like gender, ethnicity, and many other characteristics—is a “natural part of the human experience” (as expressed in the U.S. Developmental Disabilities Act). But, historically, we have perceived disability as abnormal, a problem to be fixed, a condition to be cured, and more. (Somewhere along the way, we lost our common sense.) As a result, official policies to “help” were created, which have inadvertently led to the widespread segregation, inadequate education, staggering unemployment, and pervasive devaluation of men, women, boys, and girls who happen to have conditions known as developmental disabilities.

Together, we can explore new ways of thinking, talking, and doing, and blaze new trails to a place where everyone belongs, so...

Let's Do It!

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF ARTICLES

For ease in finding the title of an article, words like "the" and "a" in the beginning of a title have been omitted from the article titles in the list below. Each title is followed by the Explore section(s) where the article is located (a few articles are in two Explore sections). You can click on the link to the right of the title to go to the page where the article is located; you can also use the drop-down Explore menu at the top of this page. You'll find descriptions of each article on the Explore page where the article is located.

©2009-10 Kathie Snow, www.disabilityisnatural.com