With a fluctuating condition and a fair amount of public ignorance, the term ‘disabled’ can be unsatisfactory for everybody concerned. Mike Caddick tackles this in his latest blog. He much prefers ‘LESS-abled’ and would like to see a logo designed for this more flexible label.
http://www.mssociety.org.uk/ms-support/community-blog/2012/12/disabled-or-less-abled
Do you agree? What would your logo be?
Stewart (admin)
Not sure I like that term Stewart. We may be less able in our bodies but some of the people on here are much more able in their minds than people who are ‘healthy’. I can’t really think of a better description for us than disabled as that does not imply that you are less able mentally. Teresa xx
hiya
i am not keen on less abled either. i am goosed physically but mentally i have never been stronger! bald folk are now folically challenged. short are vertically challenged. etc etc.
how about physically challenged? but that doesnt cover everybody!
i suspect that there wont be one word thats suitable-we all have different experiences,ways of coping etc.
my friend refers to me as her ***** friend. which is totally incorrect in the pc world but i know her intention is genuine and she cares for me.
so i guess am not hung up on what anyone refers to me as-its just yet another label. the world survives on labels!
ellie x
I don’t like the term less-abled either.
Teresa.x
I really don’t like the term “less abled”. At all.
Disabled is a universally accepted and recognised term so I say stick with it:
Disabled
-student allowance
-badge
-toilet
-facilities grant
-sport
-railcard
Change people’s attitude not the word.
S.
-I would say less able because of disability of function of parts of my body, therefore less able to do things I could previously. So therefore the term ‘less able/disabled’, both terms describe my predicament, not one isolated from the other.
Whatever the term, society at large need to know that enduring the remains or constant changes due to disease or illness affects a persons daily life in so much as they have a lesser quality of life without aids adaptations and money to pay utility bills, as those less able tend to sit around more than someone who has all their bits working properly.
No doubt government will lessen their terms/labels to make it look like disability isnt a problem - whereas we all know what our daily lives are like living with ms and other disease manifestations - not easy and very expensive.
bren
x
My vote is to stay with disabled.
Remember that the population at large do not really know what it means - but they “know what it means”.
Like stormagedden says: Change people’s attitude, not the word.
Geoff
Hi Stewart,
I dislike it, if only because it’s a mangling of the English language! We might be “less able” (but even that’s subjective), however, you can’t be: “less-abled”
For some reason, at this time of year, the notorious, politically-correct invention “Winterval” comes to mind, i.e. a word with no actual meaning, and not found in any dictionary, but coined to suit someone’s notion of “inclusiveness”.
I find even the conventional term, “disabled”, to be about as easy to pin down as fog! I.e. I do not know for sure whether it applies to me, and if I don’t, then who does? Sometimes I think it’s more accurate to say that I have a chronic health condition, or even just that I’m “ill”.
If I’m “disabled”, then compared to what? How I used to be? How an “average” person is? But what is an “average” person?
It sounds like it should be easy to decide whether someone’s disabled or not, but it isn’t.
Tina
I’m ill.
I have arthritis in both knees. I have grey hair, which I die a nicer shade of grey.
I have Multiple Sclerosis. It’s an illness not a disability.
Someone who has lost a limb, or can’t see or hear is disabled or 'less-abled.
I get the “nothing inbetween” element of Mike Caddick’s argument. Clearly not all MSers are wheelchair users but non the less have physical problems. The point of a logo however is to represent your point as simply as possible, it’s not meant to be literal. The umbrella on packaging doesn’t mean hold an actual umbrella over the parcel – just keep it dry.
You can’t legislate for the general public though and I suspect that a poll would reveal a high percentage expect users of said logo to be unable to walk. As others have said education is the key not a new logo.
(If we developed a new logo I wonder what would happen to people like me who have progressed to a wheelchair. Would we have to surrender our blue badges for one with the old style logo on it?)
The problem with less abled is that everybody in the world, whether they have any kind of illness/disability or not, is less abled. My ‘healthy’ friends now are less abled than they were ten years ago - that’s just what happens with the advancing of years. And even in our physical prime we were never as abled as a professional athlete.
Anyway, taking the argument the other way, I like the idea of referring to those who aren’t disabled simply as the ‘not yet disabled’. Let’s face it, even if they don’t get a chronic illness, there’s no escaping old age, and chances are they’ll be needing a wheelchair by the time they reach the end of their life…
Dan
what about “special” connotations of expensive and precious
so you lot on here are my special friends
x
carole
love ur post! recently a friend introduced me to another as her best friend. i had to point out to her that i dont have a best friend but many treasured ones
ellie x
i am "classed as mentally ill and disabled " because of ms and other health conditions ive got, the type of person i am n how i see things i dont really see myself as either, i just see myself as being nuts and different, ive tried changing the way people see things with disabilities but so far if you “look” ok then theres nothing wrong with you, you walk around without sticks or crutches on a good day and people treat you like a person, walk around with sticks or crutches on a bad day, they look at you like your in their way and are a nuisance, this ive had happen to me.
some people still base things on what they see and make nasty comments and looks instead of being willing to ask whats wrong, id be more than happy if someone came up to me and asked why im using crutches as id tell them, atleast that way, they know that we have good and bad days and on bad days we need the extra 3rd or 4th leg to help us.
mum uses a scooter “tank” we call it now n has decorated it with car stickers saying “im disabled n get over it” “my legs dont work but my mind does” and my favourite is “im disabled, not invisible so talk to me” the amount of people ive had a go at coz they tell mum she shouldnt be out and that she needs to get out of there way and that people like her should be put down as shes a drain on society, gets me so angry, i can proudly say i nearly got banned from my local morrisons for trying to knock a guy out for the last comment as he upset mum n made me feel sick, ive got a temper with people like that who thinks he can judge people who need extra help to walk, do stuff, mum would love to be able to walk more than 6 steps without hitting the floor, or being able to go shopping without her tank, but with the conditions its not possible, it took her ages to get used to the fact her legs were stopping working and she needs the crutches, tank n wheelchair, im sorry but there is a point where some people just need knocking out to get some sense knocked into them
I strongly DIS-like the term less-abled. The prefix DIS simply means the opposite to the word it precedes. Thus DIS-honest, DIS-like, DIS-abled.
We are not, in a variety of different ways, fully abled due to having MS therefore we are DIS-abled. It is a matter of the correct usage of the English language.
Less-abled seems to me to imply an overall inability to be as able on ALL fronts rather than in differing areas. I think educating people to understand that a Less-able person is actually extremely able academically or mentally or artistically or… the list could go on and on, would be very difficult indeed.
Whereas people accept that a DIS-abled person may have a DIS-ability in a particualr area but that it does not neccessarily mean a global lack of ability. Less-Able does however, in my mind, imply that total lack of ability.
To design another logo to reflect the nuanced change to Less-able is also fraught with problems. The whole thing with logos is that they are visual shorthand for people to immediately recognise a situation. To have DIS-abled logos and Less-abled logos would muddle the issue. And given the fluctuating nature of MS how would that then be reflected in the DIS-abled parking bays for example? On a day that I needed only my stick would I then display my Less-able badge and park in the appropriate bay and the following week when using my scooter pull out my DIS-abled badge and park in THAT bay? Or should that be vice versa?
Toooo confusing. Let’s stick to the KISS principle of Keep It Simple, Sweetheart and cause less confusion all round.
Cheers,
B
Hello there,I hope everything is tucked in and toasty. I’m not bothered how I’m labelled.At one time I mignt have been In…valid,handicapped (like a horse race?) cripple,etc.As the Western World has become more concerned about status,using the PC *ollocks to make up for a lack of manners and Social Graces,we become more marginalised by the’ shouting and screaming ’ that can ensue if there is a problem with a word or phrase when applied to a person who doesn’t come up to the perceived vision of lovliness.
I’ve got enough stuff to focus on, holding body and soul together,without getting my male under garments into a state of torsion over how people should be labelled.The money won’t change,peoples’ perception won’t change,what is said behind closed doors won’t change…The Paralympics did more than anything to show that ‘grit and determination’ can produce a remarkable sporting event.YOU confront your challenges everyday,but because getting dressed,spilling breakfast,having to stop doing anything to rest etc, aren’t pulling huge TV audiences very few people realise how difficult life can be.
I suppose because mundane tasks can become so difficult we are Diffabled…Differently able,and have to cope with things that the majority of people cannot imagine.I hope there isn’t a penny wasted on trying to give out a new label which will be changed in a few years,when sensibilities change…Again
I suppose I’m lucky in that being Ginger I had abuse for the first 16 years of life,until I walloped a ‘big bad bully’ at school,and then I became a narky,little [very filtered word].Society gives us a label,and until a person has health problems they don’t really understand what life can become, and I think their new label isn’t that high on the list of priorities.
Right… I’m devoting my limited energy to something that matters to me,
Wb
Like others have said the word itself is irrelevant. Without education any word will be misused and have the wrong connotations.
Having said that I am not very keen on less-abled, in educational terms less able does infer struggling to keep up academically.
LOVE Diffabled!!!
Brilliant, Wb
B
I wonder how Jonathan Woss or Jamie Oliver would say Diffabled
Wb
LMAO
B