A Note on Language and the Social Identity of Disabled People

Longmore, Paul K.

doi:10.1177/000276485028003009

Cited by 57 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…19 Medical students' negative attitudes toward patients with disabilities may affect the patients' self-concept and general health. 20 Adapting communication to patients with disabilities can be seen as a tension between dominant group discourse to keep disabled "others" in place, 21,22 or in contrast, empowering exchanges by emphasizing "person first" language and discourse about the person as a whole. 23 CAT frames the degree of accommodation (modified communication) in terms of convergence, divergence, and maintenance as the result of perceiving group membership (in this case disability) as salient.…”

Section: Original Research and Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Rapport Building Extends Beyond Affiliation: Communication Overaccommodation Toward Patients with Disabilities

Duggan

Bradshaw²,

Swergold³

et al. 2011

TPJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Physician rapport with patients is described as a vital component of relationship-centered care, but rapportbuilding communication behaviors may exceed boundaries and instead indicate patronizing behavior toward patients with disabilities. This paper addresses the types of communication behaviors and contexts for interpreting when rapport building extends beyond boundaries toward patients with disabilities.Methods: Videotaped interactions between third-and fourthyear medical students (N = 142) and standardized patient educators with physical disabilities were qualitatively analyzed.Results: Results suggest six primary themes of exceeding expected rapport boundaries, including baby talk (ie, exaggerated nonverbal gestures and "we" language to indicate "you"), kinesic movement (ie, stiff posture and awkward handshakes), vocalics (ie, volume or pitch that interfered with the flow of conversation), relationship assumptions (ie, communicating assumptions that relationships were grounded in care-receiving), emotional divergence from patient disclosure (ie, minimizing or embellishing disability), and inconsistency with patient emotional cues (ie, responding to negative or neutral disclosure by overly accentuating positive interpretation).Discussion: This study suggests that communication behaviors generally described as positive, rapport-building behaviors can pose negative implications when they exceed the expected quantity or duration, when they are inconsistent with patient verbal disclosure, or when verbal and nonverbal messages are inconsistent. Identified themes serve as examples to understand when rapport building exceeds beyond affiliation and instead appears to indicate patronizing behavior toward patients with disabilities. Suggestions for interpreting communication behaviors within the context of patient disclosure and building capacity to distinguish attitudes and biases limiting communication are addressed.

show abstract

Section: Original Research and Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Rapport Building Extends Beyond Affiliation: Communication Overaccommodation Toward Patients with Disabilities

Duggan

Bradshaw²,

Swergold³

et al. 2011

TPJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Each of these examples reinforces negative stereotypes of people with disabilities through their descriptions and use of language, especially a phrase like "suffers from ...... (Blaska, 1993;Longmore, 1985). These examples are consistent with the analysis by Smart (2001) in that language used by the broader society to speak about devalued people has the following characteristics: (a) the words used to describe these people are both offensive and demeaning; (b) the identifying words that are used to set these people apart from the broader society make very clear that these people do not "belong" with everybody else (this is called "distancing" or "polarization"); (c) usually the language is not a self-identification-people do not use these terms to describe themselves; (d) the language usually "lumps" all the people perceived to be in the group together, regardless of individual differences; (e) the labels used to describe people with disabilities describe, often inaccurately, only one aspect of an individual's identity ("this is called reductionism"); and (f) society is very reluctant to change individual language use, using the defense of ease of use or of freedom of speech (p. 56).…”

Section: Reinforcement Of Negative Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 87%

The More Things Change, the More They are the Same: Continuing Concerns with the Special Olympics

Storey

2008

Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The language historically used to identify 'handicapped' individuals has often been pejorative. Language may relegate people with disabilities to a constrained social role wherein they are marginalized and seen as dependent, in need of professional supervision [3,14]. Fine and Asch [3] pointed out some of the historically and institutionally embedded problems that have existed with respect to conceptualizing or defining disability.…”

Section: Defining Disabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Abuse of Women with Disabilities: Toward an Empowerment Perspective

Foster

Sandel

2010

Sex Disabil

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abuse of women with disabilities is a significant societal problem of which practitioners, service providers, and other professionals must be aware, respond to, and work to alleviate. Practitioners in most settings will encounter client systems impacted by disability, and many of their clients may be victims of abuse. Primary objectives of this paper are (1) to summarize issues and problems relevant to abuse of women with disabilities (2) to describe some of the empowering, proactive attitudes and behaviors of victim-survivors and their support networks, and (3) to further emphasize the need for practitioners to give primacy to helping such clients empower themselves to (re)take and maintain charge of their lives.

show abstract

A Note on Language and the Social Identity of Disabled People

Abstract: J. (2004). Challenge and success: A qualitative study of the career development of highly achieving women with physical and sensory disabilities.

Cited by 57 publications

References 2 publications

When Rapport Building Extends Beyond Affiliation: Communication Overaccommodation Toward Patients with Disabilities

When Rapport Building Extends Beyond Affiliation: Communication Overaccommodation Toward Patients with Disabilities

The More Things Change, the More They are the Same: Continuing Concerns with the Special Olympics

Abuse of Women with Disabilities: Toward an Empowerment Perspective

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About