Interacting with People with Disabilities

Many non-disabled people feel uncomfortable around individuals with disabilities. Although the ADA will knock down many barriers, the law cannot eradicate invisible attitudinal hurdles. As a result, ADA and sensitivity training are crucial. Sometimes, individuals avoid people with disabilities or exhibit awkwardness. Much of this discomfort stems from misunderstanding and lack of contact with people with disabilities. Common feelings include:

• Social uneasiness

  A sense of awkwardness and uncertainty as to how to speak and act in the presence of people with disabilities.
  
  

• Paternalism

  A feeling that people with disabilities are dependent and helpless and therefore in need of special treatment or charity.
  
  

• Assumptions about emotions

  Assumptions about how people with disabilities feel about their conditions, specifically that they feel sorry for themselves or that they are bitter.
  
  

• Assumptions about abilities

  Assumptions about what people with disabilities can or cannot do.
  
  

Unless overcome, these attitudes can stand in the way of encouraging AFSCME members with disabilities to become active in the union or asking them what special needs they have so that the union can help them. A person may be reluctant, for example, to offer to read the AFSCME newspaper to a visually impaired co-worker. There are several steps that can be taken to help ease that sense of awkwardness:

• Feel free to offer assistance to a person with a disability or ask how you should act or communicate, but do not automatically assume that the person needs assistance. Wait until the offer is accepted. Then, the individual can let you know what action he or she prefers.
  
  
• Look directly at an individual with a disability when addressing him or her, even if a companion or sign language interpreter is present. Avoiding eye contact sometimes increases tension. In addition, hearing-impaired people may be trying to lip read.
  
  
• Do not equate speech or other impairments with intellectual limitations. Adults should always be treated as adults.
  
  
• Do not assume that a person with a disability is more fragile or sensitive than other workers. These feelings may make you reluctant to ask certain questions that should be asked.
  
  
• Be considerate of the extra time it might take for a person with a disability to finish a sentence or complete a task. Let the person with the disability set the pace in walking or talking. When conversing with a person who has difficulty speaking, do not interrupt or finish sentences for that person. Consider asking questions that require short answers or can be answered by nods of the head.
  
  
• When meeting a person with a visual impairment, always identify yourself and anyone else who may be with you.
  
  
• When conversing with a wheelchair user or a person of short stature, try to be seated to facilitate eye contact.
  
  
• When speaking to a hearing-impaired person who can lip read, be sure to stand in a well-lighted area, and keep hands, cigarettes and food away from your mouth when speaking.
  
  

In addition, try not to use language that offends people with disabilities:

Instead of using: Crippled with, suffering from, afflicted with
Substitute: Has, with

Instead of using: Handicap
Substitute: Disability

Instead of using: Handicapped person
Substitute: Person with a disability

Instead of using: Normal, healthy, able-bodied
Substitute: Nondisabled

Instead of using: Disease, defect
Substitute: Condition

Instead of using: Confined to a wheelchair
Substitute: Wheelchair user, uses a wheelchair

Instead of using: Blind
Substitute: Visually impaired

Instead of using: Deaf
Substitute: Hearing impaired