Creating, Translating, and Interpreting Content Related to People with Disabilities, What Should We Pay Attention to?

Every December 3, the world commemorates the Day of Persons with Disabilities. This commemoration began in 1992 after the United Nations declared 1983-1992 as the Decade for Persons with Disabilities. This determination was made after in 1976, the United Nations designated 1981 as the Year of Persons with disabilities in which countries in the world were invited to make plans to create a safe world for persons with disabilities.

Then, within a decade between 1983-1992 was the time frame where countries around the world realized their set plans by making regulations regarding people with disabilities and building public facilities that guaranteed the rights and safety of people with disabilities.

Furthermore, some countries even make guidelines for the use of certain words in communication products that are more disability-friendly. Summarized from various sources, the following are things that need to be considered when we want to create and or translate writings, videos, podcasts, or other media contents related to disability.

Content :

Know the rude and demeaning words

Words such as ‘crippled, blind, crazy, poor, stupid, idiot, etc.’ are words we need to avoid when we want to create and or translate content related to disability. Even when the content created is not related to disability, awareness to avoid words such as ‘crippled, poor, blind, crazy, idiot, etc.’ is still necessary.

There are a lot of joking contents on social media that easily use the word ‘crippled’ or ‘blind’ which unwittingly offend people with disabilities. As we know, people with disabilities have long struggled to be accepted in society. Awareness not to use words related to disability as a joke is one step to truly accept people with disabilities as members of society who deserve respects.

Find out and use more refined terms

There are more refined words which we can use to replace words which sound rude and demeaning. The example of this one can be seen in the context of Indonesia where the word ‘penyandang cacat‘ (disabled person) is no longer used and has been replaced with ‘penyandang disabilitas or kaum difabel’ (persons with disability or persons with different ability.

The word disabilitas is taken from the word ‘disability’ which means inability due to physical, sensory, and mental limitations. In English, the phrase person with disability is more recommended than the phrase handicapped person. It is recommended to put person first over diagnosis or condition.

Over time, there are also several other terms used to replace the word disabled or handicapped, such as people with special needs and people with different abilities. In Indonesia itself, the term diffable refers to people with disabilities who are able to carry out various activities in different ways, such as paralympic athletes who can still achieve achievements within their limitations.

In the area of education in Indonesia, the word students with special needs is more often used to refer to students with disabilities. There are some more refined terms that have actually been used for a long time in a more official scope such as tunanetra to refer to the condition where an individual is unable to see even with assistive devices, tunadaksa for individuals with physical disabilities, tunagrahita for individuals with limited mental abilities, etc. However, in everyday conversation these terms are used less frequently.

The refined terms used can be different in each community and country. For example, in Indonesia, people with hearing limitations prefer the term ‘tuli’ (deaf) or ‘teman tuli’ (the deaf friends) to tunarungu (refined term for deaf people).

According to some sources, the use of tuli shows an acknowledgment of their identity as the Deaf and encourages those with normal hearing to be aware of their existence.

When acknowledgement presents, it is hoped that people will take various initiatives to accommodate teman tuli. Another example is the use of the phrases ‘autistic person’ and ‘person with autism’. A survey with 3500 respondents consisting of people with autism, family, caregivers, and friends with disabilities, conducted by Lorcan Kenny of Autistica, showed that most respondents prefer to use the phrase ‘autistic person.’

Some countries have specific guidelines for the writing and use of disability-friendly terms. Some of the guides that can be accessed online are as follows:

Unfortunately, in Indonesian, so far there is no thorough official list on refined words which are more inclusive yet. The government is urged to create such list to help journalists, content creators, as well as translators in creating and translating more polite contents which do not demean people with disabilities.

Avoid content containing ableism

Ableism comes from a combination of the English words ‘able’ which means capable of doing things (in contrast to ‘disabled’) and ‘ism’ which can be freely translated as a paradigm.

Ableism is an act of discrimination against persons with disabilities based on the notion that disability is a disease or damage that must be avoided and corrected.

There are many ableism behaviors that we often act out of ignorance, such as speaking to people with disabilities using tones and mimics that we usually use when we speak to children.

There are many people with disabilities whose mental development is fine even though their motor movements are slow or different. Treating all persons with disabilities as we treat children is an act of ableism. Imitating a person with disability for a comedy content or even a casual joke is also ableism.

We can easily see content that contains ableism in various media which is sad. Another example of ableism is questioning the ability of a person with a disability who greatly excels in a particular field. I one time witnessed such behavior where a woman approached a friend of mine, a great musician with very low vision.

She asked whether or not my friend could read the music sheet she held. She insisted that my friend could still see something and that is why he could play music very well.

As much as possible avoid content pitying people with disabilities

We often see news headlines or media posts which attract affection and solidarity such as ‘A girl with multiple disabilities is taken care by her old and fragile grandma.’ Such content seems to be harmless. They are also effective in raising fund to help people with disabilities who haven’t been able to provide for themselves. Nevertheless, there are also communities of persons with disabilities who feel uneasy about such kind of headlines or posts.

These communities believe that they just need acceptance instead of constant charity which more often makes the giver’s position higher and those who receive the charity as people who need assistance all the time. Somehow, such content is a powerful tool to raise fund.

In Indonesia, there are even scam cases where people create contents using pictures of people with disabilities to raise money which they use for themselves.

Although, it is undeniable that there are many people who really need direct help, it is worth noting that giving assistance means empower those in needs to be more independent. The charity content seems to ignore the ability of people with disabilities to be productive.

Such content usually focuses more on the suffering of persons with disabilities, on their inability to do simple things, and also on how they become a burden to society. This might also hinder the effort of creating equal world for people with disabilities.

It took decades before people with disabilities are recognized as an equal member of the society. There is a long and bitter history related to how people with disabilities were treated in the past. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities should be a reminder for us to keep making efforts to treat people equally, be they live with disabilities or not.

A few decades ago, people with disabilities were seen as a burden and had to be included in institutions. There were even times when people with disabilities were killed to reduce the burden on society. Now, along with the development of technology, there is more information that should help us understand people with disabilities better.

As a result, after knowing more, we need to act more. Let’s create a friendly world for all of us even when we have disabilities. Using inclusive terms that are disability-friendly is one of our ways to create a safer world for all.

References:

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Located in Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, PeMad provide translation and localization services in more than 20 languages. We combine translation and research-based cultural adaptation to deliver the best results for global clients.