The Profound Effect of Words

Today in class we watched a TEDTalk (check it out here) by Aimee Mullins, who is an actor, athlete, and inspirational speaker. Mullins was born without a fibula in both of her legs, meaning that when she was born, her parents were told she would never walk and would be bound to a wheelchair her whole life. However, Mullins proved them wrong, learning to walk using prosthetics by the age she was two, and going on to become the first amputee, man or women, to compete in the NCAA!

Mullins starts out her talk by reading synonyms found from the 2009 Webster’s thesaurus for the word disabled and what she read shocked me. The thesaurus listed words such as “cripple,” “defect,” “detriment,” “disqualification,” “invalidity,” “weakness,” “challenged,” “incapacitated,” “lame,” “unfit,” and “unsound,” among others. And antonyms were listed such as “whole,” “healthy,” and “unimpaired.” Guys, I was floored. How is it, that as of 2009, and I even found these same words listed in versions of the thesaurus as recent as 2014, we still are given the impression that being disabled equates with being lesser than being able-bodied? Mullins, whom society would call disabled, set World Records in several track events, something that I, whom society would call able-bodied, most certainly have not done.

Mullins goes on to discuss how the way we talk to one another and label one another has such a profound effect on how we perceive ourselves. She notes a study in which A students were told they were D students and vice versa, and by the end of the three month study, those A students had suddenly become D students and those D students had suddenly become A students, all because of the way they were treated based on how they were labeled. Nothing else changed, the D students weren’t given extra tutoring or anything along those lines, all that changed was a simple label.

Words have a such an impact on the way we see ourselves and others, and as a future health professional, this has only made me more aware of how I see and label others. I want to be someone who empowers others with my words, rather than bring them down. And as a soon to be occupational therapist, that’s the whole goal of my profession. We strive to help our clients live life to the fullest despite any barriers they may face. As I go forward with my education and looking ahead to when I start working with clients, my goal is to never tell someone they can’t do something, no matter what “disability” medicine and society has labeled them with. Instead, I will do everything in my power to not only tell them they can, but to show them they can, helping them to overcome any barriers they may face, whether physical, mental, emotional, or those placed on them by society.

So today I challenge you to consider the words you use and the labels you place on others, and even yourself. Do they empower individuals or do they bring them down? And which would you rather be known for doing?