Strategic Linguistic Choices within the Swedish Disability Movement: Practical Reasoning, Agency, and Antiableist Challenges

Abstract

This essay examines how the Swedish disability movement creates policies involving naming practices as a means for self-presentation. The study takes its departure from two kinds of empirical data: websites of specific disability organizations and an interview with representatives of a national disability organization. Different angles of problems associated with terms for self-description are discussed mainly from a rhetorical-agency perspective. Through the analysis of data, I show how different political goals are connected to naming practices, resulting in ambivalence toward ongoing linguistic innovation processes, especially those with roots in norm criticism.