There is rarely no word for disability in a given language. If you have body parts in your language, you have words for those body parts not working, and you have words for sickness.
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To delve back into my own and related languages, words to describe disabled bodies and people include “bad __”, “broken ___” and “sick ___”
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Further; there is rampant ableism in these languages, and this is culturally derived. Common admonishments include “your ears/eyes must be broken”, “you have no feet/legs”, “your head doesn’t work” “your head is sick”, “there is nothing inside”. Yes, muteness is stigmatised.
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For you to say no ableism exists in a language, especially an Indigenous language, it must be the norm that speakers use it in a way that neither stigmatises nor justifies nor excludes disability. This is a grandiose claim, and in many I have encountered, a false one.
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People love to say it around me. Then at some point down the track they will explain the literal meaning of a derogatory phrase and either apologise or say that it doesn’t apply to my case. This has led me to believe that people will repeat this fallacy without actually...
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researching and/or actively advocating for a disability inclusive use of their language and its idioms and other informal phrases.
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I am very over this phrase being repeated uncritically. I believe we are all better than this. Pretending to the outsiders that we are models of utopian thinking is harmful to our own growth and stops us from managing our own ability to cause harm.
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