Respectful Language as Perceived by People with Disabilities

Abstract

Respectfully and adequately referring to people with various disabilities is difficult due to societal norms and constantly evolving languages. In this work, we address the question of how expert researchers in the field of accessibility are referring to people with disabilities and whether this terminology corresponds to how people with disabilities prefer to be addressed. By conducting a systematic literature review of the past three ASSETS proceeding, we summarize how accessibility researchers are currently referring to people with disabilities in English. A survey of 63 people with disabilities further revealed that while researchers from ASSETS are using terms that are mostly aligned with participants’ expectations, the same terminologies can be perceived both respectful and disrespectful by varying participants. Through this preliminary work, we pave the path for researchers to further explore respectful terminology and encourage researchers to improve the inclusivity and diversity of language use in our community.