When writing about people with disabilities or about accessibility, be mindful about using unintentionally biased language that may cause harm.
Write thoughtfully about disability
Don't use euphemisms or patronizing terms:
- Avoid describing people without disabilities as normal or healthy.
Better: nondisabled person, sighted person, hearing person, person without disabilities, neurotypical person.
Avoid terms that reflect or project feelings and judgements about a person's disability, such as victim of, suffering from, wheelchair-bound.
Better: experiencing, living with, uses a wheelchair
Person-first and identity-first language
When writing about accessibility and people with disabilities, be sure to center the person or community, and avoid terms that remove personhood.
- Avoid language like the disabled
- Better: people with disabilities
Note: While person-first language is generally preferred (person with a cognitive impairment, person with low vision), some people prefer identity-first language; for example, this preference is common in Deaf and neurodivergent communities (Deaf person, neurodivergent person).
Before writing about a community, take time to educate yourself about how the community prefers to be identified and described. Some helpful resources include the following:
- Write documentation for all: General guidelines and examples that illustrate some best practices for writing documentation for everyone.
Next unit: Add accessible visuals to writing