Manners and respect to people with disabilities

Manners and respect to people with disabilities

Disabled people always try to be as independent as possible in an accessible space. Like everyone else, they have to be treated with respect and equality; an inexcusable error of our society is to associate disability with dependency or need of others, so here are some manners, to know how to deal with people with disabilities.

Person is the first

The disabled people before anything else are human people, they have the same rights and obligations as others, they can take decisions and assume consequences; disability is a condition of life, not an illness, so they should always be treated as a person and never as a sick person. It is important to talk to them according to their age.

Behave naturally

When you are related to a disabled person, you should behave as usually you do with any other person; this does not mean forgetting or ignoring his or her disability.

Treat disabled people naturally, means avoid: overprotection, looking at them with fear, contempt, curiosity and / or pain; instead of that, we have to look into their eyes, in a natural way.

Always ask before doing

If you find that a disabled person needs your help to perform some activities, offer it before doing, and if you are accepted, ask how about you could help.

Respect the space of people with disabilities

Everyone needs a living space to feel safe and comfortable, sometimes actions like take the arm to a disabled person, give pats on the back or head, can be taken as a meddling, causing insecurity and possible overbalance.

Be inclusive

Disabled people know what are their abilities and limitations, so they can decide in which activities they wish to participate. They should never be excluded only by thinking that they cannot perform them.

Reply with kindness and a smile the requests of people with disabilities

Smile and respond with kindness, when you receive a request for help, because we are all different and we all need each other.

Avoid degrading, negative or diminutive, terms

The right thing is to call people by their names, but if you search an appropriate term, this would be "people with disabilities", but this term should never be used to offend.

Disability is not contagious, but discrimination can be easily spread.

Respect the special furniture and equipment 

Respect the parking places indicated, furniture and equipment that are special to people with disabilities.

Maintaining confidentiality

It is normal to feel curiosity about the life of a disabled person, but we must respect the privacy of that people and wait until he or she decided to talk about the situation.

Be patient

Do not despair if the actions or language are slow, do not interrupt.  Let the people finish and if something was not clear do not be embarrassed to ask. It is better to have a short but concise conversation that long and confusing.