Disability Resource Center
Disability Etiquette & ADA
Disability Etiquette l ADA l ADA Helpful Links l ADA Myths & Facts
Disability Etiquette
General Etiquette
Basic Guidelines
People with disabilities want to participate equally with the rest of the community. They are people first, with various hopes, dreams, fears, hobbies, jobs and interests. Many times their disability is not what they identify with the most, it is just a part of their whole self. When referring to a person who has a disability make reference to the person, then the disability. Say a person with a disability rather than a disabled person
A person who has a disability is not necessarily chronically sick or unhealthy. He or she is often just disabled.
A person is not a condition, so avoid describing a person in such a manner. Do not present someone as an epileptic or post polio.
Common Courtesies
Do not feel obligated to act as a caregiver to people with disabilities. It is alright to offer assistant to a person with a disability but wait until your offer is accepted before you help.
Leaning on a person’s wheelchair is similar to leaning or hanging onto a person and is usually considered rude. The chair is part of one’s body space. Do not hang on it.
When offering assistance to a person with a visual impairment, allow that person to take your arm. This will enable you to guide rather than propel or lead the person. Use specific directions, such as left one hundred feet or right two hundred yards when directing a person with a visual impairment.
When planning events which involve persons with disabilities, consider their needs before choosing a location. Even if people with disabilities will not attend, select an accessible spot.
To get the attention of a person who has a hearing impairment, tap them on the shoulder or wave. Look directly at the person and speak clearly, slowly and expressively to establish if they read lips. People with hearing impairments who read lips rely on facial expressions and body language for understanding. Stay in the light and keep food, hands and other objects away from your mouth.
When talking to a person in a wheelchair for more than a few minutes, place yourself at eye level with that person. This will spare both of you a sore neck.
More Tips for interacting with people with disabilities
Listen to the person with the disability. Do not make assumptions about what that person can or cannot do.
When speaking with a person with a disability, talk directly to that person, not through his or her companion. This applies whether the person has a mobility impairment, a mental impairment, is blind or is deaf and uses an interpreter.
Extend common courtesies to people with disabilities as you would anyone else. Shake hands or hand over business cards. If the person cannot shake your hand or grasp your card, they will tell you. Do not be ashamed of your attempt, however.
If the person has a speech impairment and you are having trouble understanding what he or she is saying, ask the person to repeat rather than pretend you understand. The former is respectful and leads to accurate communication; the latter is belittling and leads to embarrassment.
Offer assistance to a person with a disability, but wait until your offer is accepted before you help.
It is okay to feel nervous or uncomfortable around people with disabilities, and it's okay to admit that. It's only human to feel that way at first. Everyone is uncomfortable in situations they are not familiar with. When you encounter these situations, think "person" first instead of disability; you will eventually relax.
The Power of Words
Conversation
Make reference to the person, then the disability. Say a person with a disability rather than a disabled person.
When speaking about people with disabilities, emphasize achievements, abilities, and individual qualities. Portray them as they are in real life, as parents, employers, business owners, etc.
Terms which should be avoided because they have negative connotations and tend to evoke pity include:
abnormal, burden, condition, deformed, differently abled, disfigured, handicapped*, incapacitated, imbecile, maimed, moron, palsied, pathetic, physically challenged, pitiful, poor, spastic, stricken with, suffer, tragedy, unfortunate.
*Use the word handicap to describe a situation or barrier imposed by society, the environment or oneself. Do not use the word handicap in reference to a person. The term handicapped is derived from the image of a person standing on the corner with a cap in hand, begging for money.
Words With Dignity
By using Words with Dignity we encourage equality of everyone
Use Person with a disability
Avoid Cripple, handicapped, invalid
Use Uses a wheelchair
Avoid Confined to a wheelchair, wheelchair bound
Use Non-disabled, Able-bodied
Avoid Normal (referring to non-disabled persons as normal
insinuates that people with disabilities are abnormal.
Use Hard of Hearing
Avoid Deaf mute
Use Emotional disorder, mental illness
Avoid Crazy, Insane
Use Seizures
Avoid Fits
Attitudinal Barriers
Inferiority
Because a person may be impaired in one of life's major functions, some people believe that individual is a "second-class citizen." However, most people with disabilities have skills that make the impairment moot in the workplace.
Pity
People feel sorry for the person with a disability, which tends to lead to patronizing attitudes. People with disabilities generally don't want pity and charity, just equal opportunity to earn their own way and live independently.
Hero worship
People consider someone with a disability who lives independently or pursues a profession to be brave or "special"
for
overcoming a disability. But most people with disabilities do not want accolades for performing day-to-day tasks. The
disability is there; the individual has simply learned to adapt by using his or her skills and knowledge, just as
everybody adapts to being tall, short, strong, fast, easy-going, bald, blonde, etc.
Ignorance
People with disabilities are often dismissed as incapable of accomplishing a task without the opportunity to display their skills. In fact, people with quadriplegia can drive cars and have children. People who are blind can tell time on a watch and visit museums. People who are deaf can play baseball and enjoy music. People with developmental disabilities can be creative and maintain strong work ethics.
The Spread Effect
People assume that an individual's disability negatively affects other senses, abilities or personality traits, or that the total person is impaired. For example, many people shout at people who are blind or don't expect people using wheelchairs to have the intelligence to speak for themselves. Focusing on the person's abilities rather than his or her disability counters this type of prejudice.
Stereotypes
The other side of the spread effect is the positive and negative generalizations people form about disabilities. For example, many believe that all people who are blind are great musicians or have a keener sense of smell and hearing, that all people who use wheelchairs are docile or compete in paralympics, that all people with developmental disabilities are innocent and sweet-natured, that all people with disabilities are sad and bitter. Aside from diminishing the individual and his or her abilities, such prejudice can set too high or too low a standard for individuals who are merely human.
Backlash
Many people believe individuals with disabilities are given unfair advantages, such as easier work requirements. Employers need to hold people with disabilities to the same job standards as co-workers, though the means of accomplishing the tasks may differ from person to person. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not require special privileges for people with disabilities, just equal opportunities.
Denial
Many disabilities are "hidden,"
such as learning disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, epilepsy, cancer, arthritis and heart
conditions. People tend to believe these are not bona fide disabilities needing accommodation. The ADA defines "disability"
as an
impairment that "substantially limits one or more of the major life activities."
Accommodating "hidden"
disabilities which meet the
above definition can keep valued employees on the job and open doors for new employees.
Fear
Many people are afraid that they will "do or say the wrong thing" around someone with a disability. They therefore avert their own discomfort by avoiding the individual with a disability. As with meeting a person from a different culture, frequent encounters can raise the comfort level.
For More information, please visit this more comprehensive Disability Etiquette page.
The ADA
ADA Outreach
Removing barriers and creating equal access for people with disabilities are the central themes of the ADA Outreach services. the ADA Outreach helps implement the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), a law that promotes full participation in society as well as economic self-sufficiency for people with disabilities.
The Center’s role is to disseminate information across Kentucky to individuals with disabilities and private and public entities, including educational entities, in order to raise awareness about the ADA as well as accessible education-based information technology.
What's Covered by The Americans With Disabilities Act
Employment:
Requires private employers with 15 or more employees to provide qualified individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity benefit from the full range of employment-related opportunities available to others.
State and Local Government Activities:
Gives persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all programs, services, and activities offered by state and local governments.
Public Transportation:
Sets guidelines for public transit so that persons with disabilities are afforded service comparable to that available to the general public.
Public Accommodations:
Addresses how privately-operated public accommodations --
such as restaurants, stores, theaters, and offices -- can "open their doors"
so
that all customers can enjoy the goods, services, facilities, and privileges
offered.
Telecommunications Relay Services:
Mandates telephone companies to establish interstate and intrastate telecommunications relay services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that persons with hearing or speech impairments have full access to phone service.
Myths and Facts About The Americans With Disabilities Act
MYTH: ADA suits are flooding the courts.
FACT: The ADA has resulted in a surprisingly small number of lawsuits -- only about 650 nationwide in five years. That's tiny compared to the 6 million businesses; 666,000 public and private employers; and 80,000 units of state and local government that must comply.
MYTH: The ADA is rigid and requires businesses to spend lots of money to make their existing facilities accessible.
FACT: The ADA is based on common sense. It recognizes that altering existing structures is more costly than making new construction accessible. The law only requires that public accommodations (e.g. stores, banks, hotels, and restaurants) remove architectural barriers in existing facilities when it is "readily achievable"
, i.e., it can be done "without much difficulty or expense."
Inexpensive, easy steps to take include ramping one step; installing a bathroom grab bar; lowering a paper towel dispenser; rearranging furniture; installing offset hinges to widen a doorway; or painting new lines to create an accessible parking space.
MYTH: The government thinks everything is readily achievable.
FACT: Not true. Often it may not be readily achievable to remove a barrier -- especially in older structures. Let's say a small business is located above ground. Installing an elevator would not, most likely, be readily achievable -- and there may not be enough room to build a ramp -- or the business may not be profitable enough to build a ramp. In these circumstances, the ADA would allow a business to simply provide curbside service to persons with disabilities.
MYTH: The ADA requires businesses to remove barriers overnight.
FACT: Businesses are only required to do what is readily achievable at that time. A small business may find that installing a ramp is not readily achievable this year, but if profits improve it will be readily achievable next year. Businesses are encouraged to evaluate their facilities and develop a long-term plan for barrier removal that is commensurate with their resources.
MYTH: Restaurants must provide menus in Braille.
FACT: Not true. Waiters can read the menu to blind customers.
MYTH: The ADA requires extensive renovation of all state and local government buildings to make them accessible.
FACT: The ADA requires all government programs, not all government buildings, to be accessible. "Program accessibility"
is a very flexible requirement and does not require a local government to do anything that would result in an undue financial or administrative burden. Local governments have been subject to this requirement for many years under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Not every building, nor each part of every building needs to be accessible. Structural modifications are required only when there is no alternative available for providing program access. Let's say a town library has an inaccessible second floor. No elevator is needed if it provides "program accessibility"
for persons using wheelchairs by having staff retrieve books.
MYTH: Sign language interpreters are required everywhere.
FACT: The ADA only requires that effective communication not exclude people with disabilities -- which in many situations means providing written materials or exchanging notes. The law does not require any measure that would cause an undue financial or administrative burden.
MYTH: The ADA forces business and government to spend lots of money hiring unqualified people.
FACT: No unqualified job applicant or employee with a disability can claim employment discrimination under the ADA. Employees must meet all the requirements of the job and perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. No accommodation must be provided if it would result in an undue hardship on the employer.
MYTH: Accommodating workers with disabilities costs too much.
FACT: Reasonable accommodation is usually far less expensive than many people think. In most cases, an appropriate reasonable accommodation can be made without difficulty and at little or no cost. A recent study commissioned by Sears indicates that of the 436 reasonable accommodations provided by the company between 1978 and 1992, 69% cost nothing, 28% cost less than $1,000, and only 3% cost more than $1,000.
MYTH: The government is no help when it comes to paying for accessibility.
FACT: Not so. Federal tax incentives are available to help meet the cost of ADA compliance.
MYTH: Businesses must pay large fines when they violate the ADA.
FACT: Courts may levy civil penalties only in cases brought by the Justice Department, not private litigants. The Department only seeks such penalties when the violation is substantial and the business has shown bad faith in failing to comply. Bad faith can take many forms, including hostile acts against people with disabilities, a long-term failure even to inquire into what the ADA requires, or sustained resistance to voluntary compliance. The Department also considers a business' size and resources in determining whether civil penalties are appropriate. Civil penalties may not be assessed in cases against state or local governments or employers.
MYTH: The Justice Department sues first and asks questions later.
FACT: The primary goal of the Department's enforcement program is to increase voluntary compliance through technical assistance and negotiation. Under existing rules, the Department may not file a lawsuit unless it has first tried to settle the dispute through negotiations -- which is why most every complaint settles.
MYTH: The Justice Department never files suits.
FACT: The Department has been party to 20 suits under the ADA. Although it tries extensively to promote voluntary compliance, the Department will take legal action when entities continue to resist complying with the law.
MYTH: Many ADA cases involve frivolous issues.
FACT: The Justice Department's enforcement of the ADA has been fair and rooted in common sense. The overwhelming majority of the complaints received by the Justice Department have merit. Our focus is on fundamental issues related to access to goods and services that are basic to people's lives. We have avoided pursuing fringe and frivolous issues and will continue to do so.
MYTH: Everyone claims to be covered under the ADA.
FACT: The definition of "individual with a disability"
is fraught with conditions and must be applied on a case-by-case basis.
MYTH: The ADA protects people who are overweight.
FACT: Just being overweight is not enough. Modifications in policies only must be made if they are reasonable and do not fundamentally alter the nature of the program or service provided. The Department has received only a handful of complaints about obesity.
MYTH: The ADA is being misused by people with "bad backs"
and "emotional problems."
FACT: Trivial complaints do not make it through the system. And many claims filed by individuals with such conditions are not trivial. There are people with severe depression or people with a history of alcoholism who are judged by their employers, not on the basis of their abilities, but rather upon stereotypes and fears that employers associate with their conditions.
Please visit our list of Helpful ADA Links
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