Useful Resources:
People tend to shy away from people with disabilities simply because they don’t know how to treat them properly and in a way where people with disabilities don’t feel like they’re getting treated differently. We also don’t know the correct phrases and words to use and say that will not offend or hurt them.
Thankfully, there are resources out there to help us understand how to correctly and kindly treat them in different settings and for different disabilities that include being handicapped, blind, deaf, or having a mental disabilities such as autism.
Here is a link that gives a quick, run-down list of how to refer to people with disabilities:
Remember to always address and emphasize on the individual and their personality, and not their disability. Their disability does NOT define them, it’s just a part of them.
Here is an article about an individual, specifically a teacher, talking about her experience with a disability and how she now tries to help her students with disabilities and finding ways to accept that part of their identity.
Shared below are 3 more websites that talk and mention about the barriers and challenges people with disabilities face and deal with, and how we can help and show them respect.