#50 - I'm Still Your Student | Lucy Harris

Yeah.

I meant to ask you this earlier, but you and your mom have brought up a couple different terms, things like sitting and standing athlete.

Are there any terms or phrases that you wish that people just knew more about or used more frequently as opposed to others?

Yeah, I think that it depends so much for everyone because so many different people prefer different types of language and different things like that.

So first and foremost, I would say just ask the student and communication.

Those are like, that's like the main thing here.

It's just asking the student because it will just give you so much answers because you're getting it straight from the person who asked.

you're adapting for.

And I feel like if you ask the student what their preferences are in terms of like language and stuff, it's really important.

So I prefer person-first language, which is like Look, there's a girl who's in a wheelchair, but some people prefer identity first language, which is like there's...

How would you...

Well, I

would even say that you kind of flip-flop because you would call yourself a seated athlete, which would be...

Yeah, that's true.

I do kind of flip-flop between them, but see, it's even...

I don't even know sometimes, but...

I think it's just that the focus isn't ever just on the person's disability, but on the person as a whole.

So like an outdated term that was used pretty frequently was like wheelchair bound.

That just puts the emphasis on the device that she uses over her as a person and being an athlete.

So, you know, being a wheelchair bound athlete feels a whole lot different than a seated athlete.

Yeah.

And so really just thinking about how you would want to be talked about or referenced to in general.

Yeah, and think about how you would want to be, like, talked about and stuff.

It's personal, right? It's kind of, you know, whatever you want to be called.

Listen to them talking about themselves, too, is something that you can do.