Helen Keller was an example of a person who had deaf-blindness. Deaf-blindness is when a person has both a visual impairment and is deaf or hard of hearing.
Since this is a short post, I figured I would include a second topic that probably deserves its own post, but can at least be introduced here. Individuals within the disability advocacy community highlight the importance of person first language. While this can feel a little clunky as we are speaking or writing, it is the most appropriate language to use when talking about individuals with special needs. Person first language is the way that I have been talking about individuals with special needs throughout these posts, including in the past two sentences. The difference is that we wouldn't call somebody a flu person. We would say that person has the flu. The same is true for individuals with special needs. The person has autism or other special needs. The disease does not define the person.
While this often requires some rethinking about the language we use, it becomes easier to use the more often one does use it.
Since this is a short post, I figured I would include a second topic that probably deserves its own post, but can at least be introduced here. Individuals within the disability advocacy community highlight the importance of person first language. While this can feel a little clunky as we are speaking or writing, it is the most appropriate language to use when talking about individuals with special needs. Person first language is the way that I have been talking about individuals with special needs throughout these posts, including in the past two sentences. The difference is that we wouldn't call somebody a flu person. We would say that person has the flu. The same is true for individuals with special needs. The person has autism or other special needs. The disease does not define the person.
While this often requires some rethinking about the language we use, it becomes easier to use the more often one does use it.
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