In the years following America's civil rights movement, equality, awareness, and acceptance have become part of the society's code. From schools to lunch counters, color segregation has been abolished. Women are running corporations and working construction. Homosexuals are gaining the rights to marry and raise families. Within this whirlwind of enlightenment, the minority anyone can join at any time still waits for a seat at the lunch counter of egalitarianism. People with disabilities account for 26% of the United States population, according to the 2000 census; that number may be high due to double-counting of people with more than one disability. Their niche in society, however, remains to be fully carved.
Since the 1960s, laws advocating the rights of people with disabilities have offered more independence and access than was previously available, but a stigma lingers. For a variety of reasons, many able-bodied people feel uneasy relating to people with disabilities. Worry of saying something offensive, or not "accommodating" the person's needs appropriately, shades interactions. Curiosity about is normal, and many people with disabilities are willing to answer questions. Apprehension, not of the person but the disability, is also normal. Disability can occur at any time to anyone; this randomness and susceptibility is daunting, and results in a "look the other way," or "not in my family" attitude. By creating walls of naivety or even hostility, some able-bodied people hope to remain immune to a potential no one can avoid.
Worries about proper etiquette are illustrated when a person in a wheelchair enters a room. Able-bodied people scurry to push furniture aside, making a path wide enough to accommodate a mid-size car, acting as though they move furniture for everyone who enters the room. More than likely, there was initially plenty of space to accommodate the wheelchair. The disability is noticed and "accommodated," and the person is ignored. Feeling the need to assist or even cater to people with disabilities is common, but condescending. It is a person, not a disability, entering the room.
Pejoration occurs when the meaning of a word or concept changes negatively over time, and becomes derogatory or offensive. Perceptions are often shaped by the words we use and the connotations we assign to those words. The term "crippled" wasn't initially pejorative, just denotative of a person with a physical disability. Over time, "crippled" became associated with feebleness and helplessness, and the term is avoided today. Words and actions affect how people with disabilities view themselves, also. Catering behavior enforces the lack of ability or self-sufficiency. Treating people with disabilities like children, by limiting conversation to simple topics or acting unnecessarily on their behalf, also diminishes self-image. "People First" language aims to promote the fact that a disability may be part of a person's life, but isn't his or her whole identity. Affirmative words replace those pejoration claimed. The term "disabled person" conjures up visions of the disability, and a sense of pity, before the person is recognized. The wording "people with disabilities" grants respect and autonomy. While the rules of writing dictate that "disabled person" is proper use of the active voice, it is correct and preferable to use affirmative wording.
As our minds open to the world of disabilities, laws are opening the world for people with disabilities. Getting an education, having a job, and finding housing were once difficult to achieve in a primarily able-bodied world. Formerly relegated to hospitals or asylums, people with disabilities have worked to be recognized as individuals. Aside from pejorative portrayals as idiots or monsters, society had few images of people with disabilities prior to the mid 1900s. President Roosevelt hid his disability, believing America may scorn a President in a wheelchair. This collective ignorance resulted in a society unable to readily integrate people with disabilities. Laws were gradually passed, and people with disabilities are infiltrating all aspects of society. As this occurs, awareness builds; people with disabilities become people we know.

This webpage is the product of my final project for my Contemporary Humanities major at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. I decided to study the lives of people with disabilities because of my experiences volunteering for the Northland Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.