ABSTRACT
Language refl ects the world around us and also constitutes the ways we understand and experience it. One aspect of the study on disability involves examining the words we use and the ways in which language represents persons and beliefs about them. Th e language used to talk about disability and disabled persons has changed over time. History, theory, advocacy, politics, and culture infl uence how disability is expressed and represented (Albrecht, Seelman, and Bury, 2001 ). Th e emergence of new paradigms of disability, the disability rights movement and disability studies, and other changes in culture bring attention to the ways that we talk about and depict disability. Examining varied perspectives on disability reveals considerable variation in language related to disability and how it is regarded.
