The Victorian Government has committed, through Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan 2022-26, to working with people with disability to understand community preferences and good practice in the language used to describe disability.
Language continues to change and evolve over time and has different meaning for different people. We recognise that people with disability have different preferences about how they describe their disability.
People’s different preferences about how language is used reflects the variety of ways people perceive their identity, experience of disability, and views of the community.
Person first language
In this Action Plan, we use person-first language to emphasise individuals beyond their disability, recognising diverse language preferences and committing to inclusive practices. This language puts the person before their disability, for example, ‘person with disability’.
Person-first language emphasises a person’s right to an identity beyond their disability as a way of addressing ableism. This approach is an important part of reflecting many people’s identities, particularly those with cognitive disability and self-advocates.
Identity first language
While we have chosen to use person-first language in the Action Plan, we recognise that person-first language may not be the preferred language of the whole community and that many people with disability prefer to use ‘identity-first’ language.
This approach puts a person’s disability identity before the person – for example, ‘disabled person.’ We recognise that identity-first language is important to many people with disability, including neurodiverse people and many in the Deaf community.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Action Plan uses the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities definition of disability, which describes people with disability as people who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory differences that, when interacting with inaccessible communities and environments, prevent full and equal community participation.
This is often called the social model of disability. Under this approach, communities, services, and spaces that are not accessible or inclusive cause disability.
Visible and non-visible disability
The Action Plan is inclusive of both visible and non-visible disabilities and acknowledges that non-visible disabilities may also impact a person’s full and equal community participation.
Recognising both visible and non-visible disabilities in the Action Plan is essential for fostering inclusion, promoting accessibility, and ensuring equal rights and opportunities for all individuals.
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