Hello again and welcome back to Lulu's happy hour.
Yesterday was May the 20th. It was a completely commercialized holiday made up by businesses trying to sell things. It's always a nice thing to have an extra day to show your love and romance to your loved one. However, I don't think many people realize this, yesterday it was also the national day for people with disabilities in China.
So in today's episode Lulu wants to talk to you about a less common topic -- disabilities. Because it is a less common topic, you might find it very difficult to discuss the related issues. So in today's episode, Lulu is going to share with you the definition of disability, the appropriate terms to refer to people with a disability, other related terms and words that you see, and also a few tips and how to interact with people with disabilities with respect.
First of all, the definition of disability. Now when people think of disability, most would first think of a physical condition. But disability doesn't stop at physical disability, disability is an impairment. Impairment means lost or damage. So disability is an impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these. Cognitive is your ability to learn things. So people can have learning disability. Cognitive disability, developmental, intellectual, this is more about your brains. Your Intellectual capacity, mental, physical and sensory about your fine senses, for instance, your vision, your hearing, your sense of smell. And a disability substantially affects a person's life activities and maybe present from birth or occur during a person's lifetime. So it can be from birth or can happen anytime during a person's life. Either way it substantially significantly affects a person's life activities and makes life a lot harder for them.
After the definition, let's move on to appropriate terms. In English, you can say disabled people, but some might find disabled people a little bit negative. Others would prefer to use these expression "people with disabilities" or "people with a disability". 殘障人士。To be more specified about the disability, someone with very very bad eyesight could be suffering visual impairment. 視力受損或視力障礙。Visual impairment. And people with visual impairment can be called visually impaired. In the same way, we have hearing impairment. And people with hearing impairment can be called hearing impaired. These words are used sometimes to avoid the use of words, such as blind or deaf, which are usually associated with negative imagery. However, among people with a disability, there is a trend to reclaim certain words. Here reclaim means redefine. This is quite difficult to understand. So for example, the word deaf, when we hear it, we think it sounds a bit negative. So over the years, people have been associating the word deaf with negative imagery. But people with this particular disability, some of them feel that it is time to cut the link between the word deaf and negative imagery. So to redefine the word deaf and make it neutral to turn it into a neutral word. So to use deaf rather than to avoid it. But to use deaf as a neutral word. This is to reclaim certain words. And some people with disability believe this reclaiming to be an empowering experience.
And when you want to refer to someone with disability, there's also a trend called people first expression. 以人為先的表達方式。So instead of saying a blind person, you say a person with impaired vision. And this is to try to see everyone as people first, instead of laboring them with their disability. Compared with people with a disability, people without are often called the able-bodied. Able-bodied, 健全人士。Now let's look at some of the words that are related to disability that you can see in life. Some of the facilities, for example, now in Chinese, we used to call them 殘疾人廁所，殘疾人通道。But in English, more general words or neutral words are used, for instance, accessible toilet 無障礙廁所。So anyone can access it, anyone can use it without any difficulty. Or wheelchair accessible 無障礙通道，so people in a wheelchair can go through without any difficulty. We also see disabled parking space, this is a parking space reserved for people with disability. And this is all part of disability benefits. Disability benefits, these could include subsidy, discount or other types of benefits. And speaking of the topic, we also have to mention something related to the Olympics. So we have the Olympics, but we also have Paralympics and special Olympics 殘奧會。Paralympics is for people with a physical disability and Special Olympics is for children and adults with an intellectual disability 特奧會。Both are amazing events. In the end I would like to share with you some of the tips in interacting with people with disabilities in a respectful manner. It's not uncommon to feel a bit uncertain talking to or interacting with someone who has a physical, sensory or intellectual disability. Socializing with people with disabilities should be no different from any other socialization. However, if you are not familiar with a given disability, you might fear either saying something offensive or doing the wrong thing by offering assistance. So these are some of the tips that we can all learn.
Tip No.1 Be respectful
Someone who has a disability should be afforded the same amount of respect as anyone else. View others as people, not impairments. I think this is very important, to view others just as another person instead of focusing on their impairments.

No.2 Never talk down to someone with disability.
Talk down to is you talk to people in a way that shows you feel that you are better than them. For example, do not speak to someone with a disability in a childlike or patronizing tone. Patronizing, again, means you feel that you are better.
No.3 Don't use labels or offensive terms, especially in a casual way. Identify someone by his or her disability or assigning an offensive label is both hurtful and disrespectful. Especially if you are trying to make light of or trying to make joke of someone's impairments.
No.4 Speaking directly to the person, not to an aide or translator. For example, if they are hearing impaired, even if you have to talk through a translator of sign language, you need to maintain eye contact with the person you are speaking to instead of talking to the translator. This is the way for genuine interaction and communication.
No.5 Put yourself in his/her position. It's easier said than done, but try your best to think that if you are in the similar situation, what would you need, what would you want. And how do you want others to treat you.
No.6 Acknowledge that most people with disabilities have adapted. This is very important. This means to understand that they are not weak. Many people learned to live with that disability and are fully capable of taking care of themselves. Don't assume otherwise.
And the last one, if necessary, offer genuine help, but ask first. Don't assume that they need any help. If you feel that they might want help, ask them first. And this is the way to treat people, anyone with or without disability with respect. I certainly learned a lot from these tips and I hope you can find them useful as well. On that note, we will end today's program. And hopefully today's program brings you some less frequently used vocabulary and terminology and also provides you with its fresh perspective. And remember genuine care and effective and respectful communication is what make this world a better place. I'll see you next time, bye.

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