{"id":169,"date":"2025-09-13T20:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/6-9-3-avoiding-disability-bias\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:19:34","slug":"6-9-3-avoiding-disability-bias","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/6-9-3-avoiding-disability-bias\/","title":{"raw":"6.10.3 Avoiding Disability Bias","rendered":"6.10.3 Avoiding Disability Bias"},"content":{"raw":"Avoid using labeled nouns when talking about people with disabilities. Try to use emotionally neutral expressions rather than ones that assign a role, such as victim<\/em> as can be seen in Table 6.6\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 6.6 Examples of Emotionally Neutral Expressions<\/caption>\n
Avoid <\/strong><\/th>\nTry <\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
the disabled people<\/td>\nIndividual with disabilities \/ people who are differently abled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the schizophrenic<\/td>\nthe person diagnosed with schizophrenia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
an AIDS victim<\/td>\na person with AIDS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
a person suffering from epilepsy<\/td>\na person with epilepsy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
handicapped parking<\/td>\naccessible parking<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
normal \/ healthy<\/td>\npeople without disabilities<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nThis section is adapted from \"Eliminating Bias in Language\"<\/a> in Communication for Professionals<\/em> by Susan Oaks, licensed under CC BY-NC: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International<\/a>, except where otherwise noted.","rendered":"

Avoid using labeled nouns when talking about people with disabilities. Try to use emotionally neutral expressions rather than ones that assign a role, such as victim<\/em> as can be seen in Table 6.6<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 6.6 Examples of Emotionally Neutral Expressions<\/caption>\n
Avoid <\/strong><\/th>\nTry <\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
the disabled people<\/td>\nIndividual with disabilities \/ people who are differently abled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the schizophrenic<\/td>\nthe person diagnosed with schizophrenia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
an AIDS victim<\/td>\na person with AIDS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
a person suffering from epilepsy<\/td>\na person with epilepsy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
handicapped parking<\/td>\naccessible parking<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
normal \/ healthy<\/td>\npeople without disabilities<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This section is adapted from “Eliminating Bias in Language”<\/a> in Communication for Professionals<\/em> by Susan Oaks, licensed under CC BY-NC: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International<\/a>, except where otherwise noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":13,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-169","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":143,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/169\/revisions\/170"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/143"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/169\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}