Essentials of Business Communication 10th Edition by Dana Loewy,Mary Ellen Guffey

Exercise 16

In a letter to the editor, a teacher criticized an article in USA Today on autism because it used the term autistic child rather than child with autism. She championed people-first terminology, which avoids defining individuals by their ability or disability.6 For example, instead of identifying someone as a disabled person , one would say, she has a disability. What does people-first language mean? Can language change perceptions?