[MR] People banned from SCA events

[Gerita della Mara]

This leads to the discussion of "people first language".  We all 
appreciate being seen as a person before any label that may/can be 
attached.  In that vein, Lady Grainne would be "a lady with diabetes", 
not  "a diabetic lady"; someone like me would be 'the lady using a 
wheelchair' not 'the crippled woman''; the individual we were originally 
presented with would be the Gentle with Aspberger's Syndrome, not 'that 
Asperger's guy'.  Seeing the person before you see the possibly negative 
difference honors the fact that we are still human beings...people...not 
just a bag of conditions and labels.

  Oh, and most of us really, truly dislike the 'disabled' label, no 
matter how its used.  "Handicapped" or "...with a handicapping 
condition" is far more acceptable to those the label applies to.  Why?  
Disabled implies that there is no way we can do (much of anything, I 
find).  Handicapped implies that things are difficult, but do-able.  Or, 
as I told my students more than 2 decades ago:  I grew up in the shadow 
of Santa Anita Racetrack.  There, handicaps (extra weight in the saddle 
bag) are applied to the fastest, best horses, while the average ones 
don't get them.  So, kids with handicaps are the best!

And if you're not medical personnel, it's rude to refer to anyone at all 
as a 'patient', especially when that person is not YOUR patient.

Gerita

On 6/30/2011 9:55 AM, Grainne ingen Lugdach wrote:
> Not picking on Davitt (honest!), but I'd like to request that we think of the individual in question--or anyone in his situation--as a *person* rather than a *patient*.
>   
> I have type II diabetes, but I don't think that anyone outside my doctor's office refers to me as a "patient." Most people don't like to be defined by their special conditions.
>   
> FWIW, I think it might have been helpful for the person in question to tell at least one or two people about any challenges he might have. That's a really tough thing to do, though, given the stereotypes and assumptions that society at large has about "those" types of challenges.
>   
> Mea culpa for the soapbox moment. Please understand that I've spent 27 years and some change working full-time with folks who have cognitive and other developmental disabilities, so I see daily that we're all a lot more like one another than we are different from one another. And I've been well-schooled in people-first language. ;-) 
>   
> In service,
> Grainne ingen Lugdach
> Shire of Roxbury Mill
>
> --- On Thu, 6/30/11, David Chessler<chessler at usa.net>  wrote:
>
>
> From: David Chessler<chessler at usa.net>
> Subject: Re: [MR] People banned from SCA events
> To: "Stefan li Rous"<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>, "Atlantia maillist"<atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
> Date: Thursday, June 30, 2011, 4:41 AM
>
>
> <snippity do-dah>
>
> As I understand the situation below, "Liam"'s mother has been active, and has
> helped the rest of the Canton deal with Liam's issues. As I understand the
> situation above, the patient is the only person who has been in direct contact
> with the Barony, and it has become apparent, to some people at least, that the
> patient is not a reliable judge of his own needs and situation.
>
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