People First Language offers humane ways to refer to members of the nation's largest minority group

This article comes from the spring 2011 Wyoming Arts Council Artscapes newsletter set for an April 29 pub date. It was contributed by WAC staffer Marirose Morris. As Arts Access Specialist, Marirose oversees several grant programs and 504/ADA guidelines. Contact her at the WAC at 307-777-7742.

A person’s self-image is tied to the words used about him/her. People First Language was started by individuals who said, “We are not our disabilities!”

People First Language puts the person before the disability, and describes what a person has, not who a person is. Are you “cancerous” or do you have cancer? Is a person “handicapped/disabled” or does he/she “have a disability?” Using a diagnosis as a defining characteristic reflects prejudice, and robs the person of the opportunity to define him/herself.

People with disabilities comprise the nation’s largest minority group. It is also the most inclusive: all ages, genders, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic levels are represented, and anyone can join it, at any time.

Say:	Instead of:
Children/adults with a disability	Handicapped, disabled, special needs
S/he has a cognitive disability	S/he is mentally retarded
S/he has Down syndrome	S/he’s mongoloid/Down’s
S/he has autism	An autistic person
S/he has a learning disability	S/he is learning disabled
S/he is deaf	The deaf
S/he has a speech disorder	Mute
S/he is blind, has a visual impairment	The blind
S/he has epilepsy	An epileptic
S/he uses a wheelchair	Wheelchair bound
S/he walks with a assistive device	A cripple
S/he is a little person	Dwarf or midget
People without disabilities	Normal or healthy people
Accessible parking, hotel rooms, etc.	Handicapped parking, hotel rooms, etc.

Activist and author Greg Mortenson to speak in Cheyenne March 29

From a post on Facebook:

Two-time Nobel Prize nominee Greg Mortenson will share insightful commentary and stunning photography to educate and promote awareness of the importance of primary education, literacy and cross-cultural understanding about the remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He will speak at the Taco John’s Events Center in Cheyenne on Tuesday, March 29, 7-10 p.m. Limited amount of tickets go on sale on Friday, Jan. 7. Tickets: $5 Students (K-College)/$15 General Public. Contact the Taco Johns Events Center at (307) 433-0025 or on-line at www.cheyennecity.org

Greg Mortenson promotes peace through education. He is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, founder of Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, and co-author of New York Times bestseller ‘Three Cups of Tea’ www.threecupsoftea.com which has sold over 4 million copies, been published in 47 countries, and a New York Times bestseller since its 2007 release, and Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year.Mortenson’s new book, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books Not Bombs, In Afghanistan and Pakistan, was released by Viking on December 1st, 2009.

As of 2010, Mortenson has established over 145 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 64,000 children, including 52,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

Laramie County Partners are bringing Greg Mortenson to Cheyenne for a series of activities, including talking to school children and a public event in the evening on March 29, 2011. The partners include: Laramie County Community College Foundation, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne Rotary, Laramie County Library, Laramie County Library Foundation and Laramie County School District No. 1.

http://www.facebook.com/LaramieCountyPartnersPresentGregMortenson

Noted linguistic anthropologist Michael Silverstein addresses UW conference July 1

From a UW press release:

The University of Wyoming Department of Anthropology's "Language, Culture and History Conference" starts Thursday, July 1, with a keynote talk by Professor Michael Silverstein, MacArthur Award-winning linguistic anthropologist from the University of Chicago.

He will discuss a "hapax legomenon," at 9 a.m. in the College of Education auditorium. Other sessions will be in Room 150 of the Anthropology Building.

The hapax legomenon is a unique textual example in the Northwestern American Indian language of Kiksht, showing how the use of passive construction reflects the unstable world of the Kiksht and colonizing pressures of the early 1900s, Silverstein says.

The conference will feature nearly 30 presenters from the United States, England and Canada talking on issues including Native American narrative and song, histories of colonialism and language use, international language ideologies, Muslim identity and deaf culture.

Silverstein's talk is sponsored by the Wyoming Humanities Council and refreshments afterwards are sponsored by the journal Ethnohistory. Both are free and open to the public.

This is something which up with I will not put

For National Grammar Day on March 4, Grammar Girl explores the Top Ten Grammar Myths. Here's number one:

1. You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.

Wrong! You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition when the sentence would mean the same thing if you left off the preposition. That means "Where are you at?" is wrong because "Where are you?" means the same thing. But there are many sentences where the final preposition is part of a phrasal verb or is necessary to keep from making stuffy, stilted sentences: I'm going to throw up, let's kiss and make up, and what are you waiting for are just a few examples (go here for details). Find more information about these myths in the Grammar Girl archives at http://quickanddirtytips.com/