1. 2011 Developing the Capacity of Disabled People’s Organisations in South Pacific Commonwealth Island Countries with regard UNCRPD

    February 2, 2018 by Richard Rieser

    Trainers: Richard Rieser, Lucy Mason , Angeline Chand assisted by Moeva Rinaldo
    Grandville Motel, Port Moresby PNG
    24th to 29th January 2011
    South Pacific Island Countries of the Commonwealth Disabled Peoples Agenda -1South Pacific Island Countries of the Commonwealth Disabled Peoples Agenda

    Copy of Developing the Capacity of Disabled People 16 pt



  2. Films of Inclusion Working

    May 23, 2017 by admin

    Location of films that show inclusive education working for disabled children and young people.

    Click the blue tags to see info about each school, and get the link to a video.

    This is a work in progress. Please contact us if you have a video you would like to have added.



  3. A-Z Offensive disablist language and origins

    July 7, 2016 by Richard Rieser

    A to Z of Offensive Disablist Language

    Afflicted
    ORIGIN: Suggests that higher force has cast the person down (‘affligere’ is Latin for to knock
    down, to weaken), or is causing them pain or suffering. Use ‘impairment’ or disabled people depending on the context.

    Cripple
    ORIGIN: This word comes from Old English crypel or creopel, both related to the verb ‘to creep’. These, in turn, come from old (Middle) German ‘kripple’ meaning to be without power. The word is extremely offensive. Use person who has / person with….

    Dumb or Dumbo
    ORIGIN: a) Not to be able to speak. b) These words have come to mean lacking intelligence but people can communicate in different ways not just talking.

    Dwarf
    ORIGIN: Dwarf is used to describe short people or short stature, through folklore and common usage it has negative connotations.

    Feeble-minded
    ORIGIN: The word feeble comes from old French meaning ‘lacking strength’. It’s meaning was formalised in the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, to mean not an extremely pronounced mental deficiency, but one still requiring care, supervision and control.Use person with learning difficulty

    Freak
    ORIGIN: Associated with freak show where people who were very small, tall, large or with other visible differences or impairments were put on display for the public gaze in 17th, 18th and 19th century. It means strange or abnormal. This should not be used.


    Handicapped

    ORIGIN: Having an imposed disadvantage. The word may have several origins:
    a) from horse races round the streets of Italian City States, such as Sienna, where really good riders had to ride one-handed, holding their hat in their other hand to make the race more equal.

    b) by association with penitent sinners (often disabled people) in many parts of Europe who were forced into begging to survive and had to go up to people ‘cap in hand’.

    Lame
    ORIGIN: Coming from Old English lama Old German lahm and Old Norse lami meaning crippled, paralytic or weak. In Middle English came to mean ‘crippled’ in hands or feet. Lame duck is also used to mean any disabled person or thing or lame brain meaning learning difficulties. In modern slang ‘lame’ is used for someone or something that is un-cool, boring, not exciting, not funny, weak, annoying, inadequate or a loser. In this respect ‘lame’ is used like ‘gay’ and should be challenged. It is offensive.

    Idiot
    ORIGIN: The word dates from the 13th century and comes from the Latin word idiota, meaning ‘ignorant person’. Again, it featured in the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 (see Feebleminded), where it meant someone who was so mentally deficient that they should be detained for the whole of their lives.

    Imbecile
    ORIGIN: This word has been around since the 16th century and comes from the Latin, imbecillus, meaning ‘feeble’ (it literally meant ‘without support’ and was originally used mainly in a physical sense). It was similarly defined in the Mental Deficiency Act, as someone incapable of managing their own affairs.

    Invalid
    ORIGIN: Literally means not valid, from Latin ‘invalidus’. In the 17th century it came to have
    a specific meaning, when referring to people, who were infirm, or disabled.

    Mental or nutter or crazy
    ORIGIN: All these are informal (slang) and offensive words for people with mental health issues. One in four people have a major bout of mental distress or become mental health system users. The vast majority are not dangerous. 1 in 10 of school age students are diagnosed with mental health issues at some point in their schooling. Such young people need understanding, support and counselling, not harassment and name calling. Other names used Lunatic, Loony, Insane, Weird, Weirdo, Bonkers, Psycho and Mad to be avoided.

    Mentally handicapped

    ORIGIN: Was and is still used to refer to people with Learning difficulties the origin of the word handicap is as above. In the UK over 150,000 people with learning difficulties were locked away in Mental Handicap Hospitals because tests showed they had low Intelligence Quotients (IQ). These tests have since been shown to be culturally biased and only to measure one small part of how the brain works. People with learning difficulties have chosen the name “people with learning difficulties” for themselves because they think that, through education, which they have largely been denied, they can improve their situation.

    Mong/Mongolian
    ORIGIN: Langdon Down was a doctor who worked at the London Hospital in Whitechapel in the 1860s. He noticed that around 1 in 800 babies was born with pronounced different features and capabilities. Their features reminded him of the Mongolian peoples. He postulated that there was a hierarchy of races (in descending order) – European, Asian,African and Mongols. Each was genetically inferior to the group above them. This was a racist theory. People with Down’s Syndrome find it extremely offensive.

    Moron(ic)
    ORIGIN: Moron, Greek, meaning ‘foolish, dull, sluggish’

    Raspberry Ripple
    ORIGIN: Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cripple’, and offensive.

    Retard
    ORIGIN: Still in common use in the USA for people with a learning difficulty; from the word retarded meaning held back in development – offensive.

    Spazz, spazzie or spastic
    ORIGIN: People with cerebral palsy are subject to muscle spasms or spasticity. These offensive words are sometimes used in reference to this. People with this impairment wish to be known as people with cerebral palsy or disabled people

    Stupid
    ORIGIN: Stupid’ was used in America at the start 20th century ‘scientifically’ to denote ‘one deficient in judgment and sense’.

    The blind; The deaf; The disabled
    ORIGIN: To call any group of people ‘the’ anything is to dehumanise them. Use blind people, deaf people or disabled people.

    Victim or sufferer
    ORIGIN: Disabled people are not victims of their impairment because this implies they are consciously singled out for punishment by God or a higher being. Similarly, the word sufferer can imply someone upon whom something has been imposed as a punishment by a deity.

    Wheelchair-bound
    ORIGIN: Wheelchair users see their wheelchair as a means of mobility and freedom, not something that restricts them, apart from problems with lack of access.

    Notes for teachers:
    1. All teaching staff should understand this guidance and be able to explain to children the
    history of disablist terms and appropriate language.
    2. Avoid using medical labels as this may promote a view of disabled people as patients. It also implies the medical label is the over-riding characteristic, which is
    inappropriate.
    3. If it is necessary to refer to a condition, it is better to say, for example, ‘a person with
    epilepsy’ not an epileptic, or ‘s/he has cerebral palsy’ not a spastic.
    4. The word disabled should not be used as a collective noun (for example as in ‘the disabled’).
    5. Although disabled people have impairments, they are not people with disabilities.
    They are disabled by outside forces. They choose to be called “Disabled People” in the UK
    because of collective oppression and solidarity.

    Richard Rieser World of Inclusion
    A to Z of offensive disablist language www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/send-programme



  4. The Impact of the Duty to Promote Disability Equality in Schools in England: A Report for the DCSF 2008

    March 29, 2015 by Richard Rieser

    dpdes (5)



  5. Tackling disablist based language bullying in English Schools.

    January 9, 2015 by Richard Rieser

    Document made by World of Inclusion for Anti Bullying Alliance.

    Tackling disablist language based bullying in school



  6. Resources for raising disability in the curriculum, written and web based

    October 25, 2014 by Richard Rieser

    Resources (1)



  7. Making it Happen: Implementing the Duty to Promote Disability Equality in Secondary Schools and Local Authorities October 2006

    October 19, 2014 by Richard Rieser

    Sec Pub Sec Course Book Third Edition



  8. Making it Happen: Implementing the Duty to Promote Disability Equality in Primary Schools January 2007 Richard Rieser

    by Richard Rieser

    Pri Pub Sec Course Book FINAL