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Today I’d like to take a moment to talk about the term diffability versus disability.  If you recall, on a recent podcast I talked about this topic.  I encourage you to download and listen to episode 41 of the podcast where I talk about the term diffability or disability. Should we use the term disability when talking about those of us with special needs or should we change the term disability to the term diffability?

Let’s take look at the term of diffability and break this word down.  Within the term diffability, we’ll take the word “difference” and the word “ability.”  So, in essence we can define this word as a difference in ability.

One of the issues that I brought up on the podcast that sparked this topic was when I heard someone use the term “suffering from disability.”  Now, why would someone use this term? It’s not like we suffer from anything.  Yes, it may be a challenge to accomplish a task or it may take us longer, but I don’t think that we are suffering from anything.  In a way, I think that this may bring upon a negative spin to the word, similar to that bad r-word.

If we use the term “diffability,” we are recognizing that everyone who may be diagnosed with special needs, or anyone for that matter, has a difference in ability.  Let’s emphasis on the words ability, respect, and inclusion.  We should also remember “people first language,” meaning say that we are a person first and the special needs is just something that makes us different.

What are your thoughts on this topic of the term diffability versus the term disability?  Share your thoughts in the comments below or call-in some voicemail feedback to the podcast and let’s talk about this topic.