You learn "person-first language" at your first IEP meeting. A child with autism. A person with Down syndrome. A student with a learning disability. The logic is clear: the person comes first, the disability second. Then you read a blog post by an autistic adult who says "Don't call me a person with autism. I'm autistic." You see Deaf community members capitalize the D and talk about Deaf culture, not hearing loss. You encounter disabled activists who reject "person with a disability" entirely. You're not doing it wrong. The disability community itself doesn't have one answer. What you were taught isn't incorrect, but it's not the whole story either. Why Person-First Language Exists. Person-first language became standard in the 1980s and 1990s as a deliberate push against dehumanization. Before that, people were routinely called "the disabled," "the retarded," "the blind." Reducing someone to their diagnosis was the norm in medical, educational, and policy settings. Person-first phrasing was a correction. It emphasized that disability is one part of a person's identity, not the sum total. A child with cerebral palsy is also a daughter, a reader, a friend. The disability doesn't erase those dimensions. Most early intervention programs, school systems, and therapy clinics still teach person-first language as the default. It's baked into disability rights law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). For many families, it's the first framework they encounter. But language evolves, and the people most affected by it get to decide where it goes. Why Some...

The disability community doesn't agree on one approach. How to navigate person-first and identity-first language respectfully.

Person-First or Identity-First? What Parents Should Know About Language in the Disability Community

Your seven-year-old watches a movie where a wheelchair user teaches the main character to "appreciate life." Your teenager rolls their eyes at another magical cure ending. Your child with a disability asks why the disabled characters on TV don't look like anyone they know. They're spotting patterns that media creators have relied on for decades, patterns so common they have names: inspiration porn, the tragic burden narrative, the magical cure, and the overwhelming likelihood that the disabled character on screen is played by someone without a disability. The question isn't whether to discuss these patterns with your child. It's how to give them the language to recognize what they're seeing without turning every movie night into a seminar. What Inspiration Porn Is. The term comes from disability activist Stella Young, who described it as content that exists to make non-disabled people feel better about their own lives. The disabled person in the story isn't a full character with wants, conflicts, and agency. They're a narrative device designed to inspire, motivate, or teach someone else a lesson. The tell is simple: if you removed the disabled character and replaced them with a motivational poster, would the story function the same way? If yes, you're looking at inspiration porn. The kid in a wheelchair who exists to teach the protagonist gratitude. The blind mentor whose wisdom comes from "overcoming adversity." The Deaf student whose main function is to inspire the hearing characters to be kinder. These stories use disabled people to make...

Identify harmful disability tropes and give your child language to recognize authentic vs. performative representation.

Beyond Inspiration Porn: How to Talk to Your Child About Disability Representation in Movies and TV

You grew up hearing "person with a disability." You learned awareness campaigns, puzzle pieces, and inspiration stories about overcoming obstacles. Then your child gets a diagnosis, and you enter online communities where people introduce themselves as "autistic" or "Deaf" with a capital D. Someone mentions Disability Pride Month, and you wonder: pride in what? You thought the goal was acceptance, maybe inclusion. Now there's a whole vocabulary you don't recognize, and you're not sure what shifted or when. This isn't a failure of understanding. It's a collision of frameworks. The awareness era taught a medical model: disability as something happening to a person, something to fix, accommodate, or overcome. Disability culture offers an identity model: disability as one characteristic in a full life, shaped by community, history, and shared experience. For families encountering this shift, the gap feels wide. This guide is the translation layer. What Disability Culture Is. The University of Massachusetts defines disability culture as "emerging art and humor, history, evolving language and symbols, a unified worldview, beliefs and values." That's a formal version. The practical version: disability culture is what happens when people with disabilities claim space, build community, develop shared language, and define their own experiences instead of accepting definitions handed to them by medical providers or well-meaning advocates. It includes disability art, disability history shaped by decades of activism that built the ADA and IDEA, humor that's specific to the experience, pride events like Disability Pride Month every July, and ongoing debates about language, representation,...

A foundational guide to disability culture, pride, and identity for parents shifting from medical models to strengths-based frameworks.

Understanding Disability Culture: Identity, Community, and Pride for Families New to the Conversation

Seventy-five years of the yellow brick road, the munchkins, Toto, witches, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, and Dorothy have not diminished the charm of this truly classic American film. The Wizard of Oz is part of our lives and the American culture. Quotations from and references to the movie surround us on a daily basis. The Wizard of Oz is the first American Fairy Tale, from the great imagination of L. Frank Baum who penned 14 Oz books. I had them all when I was a kid, and loved every word.  The film was mired with problems. The studio wanted Shirley Temple to play Dorothy but Associate Producer Arthur Freed insisted the part go to Judy Garland. Buddy Ebson started out playing The Tin Man, but almost died from breathing the dust from his makeup. Directors came and went. The history of the making this movie is described in detail in a new bonus feature. Did you know W.C. Fields, Ed Wynn, and Wallace Beery were considered for the part of the Wizard? We all know him now as the character brought to life by Frank Morgan. And did you know that the filmmakers were considering using a real lion for the Cowardly Lion? And the iconic song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was slated to be cut. Imagine this movie without that iconic song? It was the foundation of Judy Garland's career. So many interesting facts about this movie are disclosed in this great...

The Wizard of Oz celebrates 75 years with intriguing facts, a making-of documentary, and HD & 3D re-releases for home viewing.

The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary

This made-for-TV movie is based on the book Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers by Rhonda Saunders. We've all heard about stalkers stalking the rich and famous. In 1989 Rebecca Schaeffer, a young actress, was killed by her stalker. Political figures, entertainment personalities, and others suffer the problem of not only the paparazzi but also stalkers. However you don't have to be famous to be stalked. While there are laws on the books about stalking and people can get restraining orders, if someone is intent on stalking they will do it. Stalkers is a movie about two women who make stalking a priority in their jobs. Julia Winston (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) is an ambitious A.D.A. who is up against the old boys' network. She sees the danger in stalkers yet cannot get funding for a special task force to work on the problem. Diane Harkin (Drea de Matteo) is a newly hired detective who is intent on focusing on stalking cases. Julia has to fight the political ambitions of her bosses and Diane deals with a secret from her past while confronting the dangers of stalkers. Together they manage to force the city to create a special task force, and none too early. From the beginning Diane comes across a disturbing old case about a woman who is being stalked and abused by her former friend. Jane Cox (Lela Loren) is being stalked by a woman with whom she had a close friendship....

Lifetime TV's 'Stalkers' highlights stalking issues and efforts to create a special task force to combat it, starring O'Keefe and de Matteo.

Stalkers on Lifetime TV

The hit ABC Family show Bunheads is popular with viewers of all ages. Recently Bailey Buntain who plays Ginny, one of the four main "bunheads" on the show, spoke with a few journalists. I asked Bailey about the combination of ballet and jazz dance numbers in the show and whether she thought the ballet was more comfortable for her. "I actually was trained equally; my core training was in ballet, jazz, and tap," she told me. "Much like Ginny, my body type — I'm really short — always lent itself better to the jazz and tap style so I find all the dances pretty equally challenging. I've had my favorite that's for sure. My favorite dance number that we ever dis is actually in the finale, and so I'm so excited to see how that one turns out." The young actors have to play out their dramatic storylines — and often some humorous ones as well — and I was curious whether she had any input into her character's actions. She replied, "I don't really have a big say in it and I don't know if I would want a say in it. I don't know if I want that responsibility! I love everything that the writers do and it surprises me, the things that they do, but I always understand the series of events that lead to it." When asked whether she and her character are similar, Bailey surprised me a little. "I am similar to Ginny," she confided....

Bailey Buntain from 'Bunheads' discussed her dance background, character similarities, and off-set friendships with co-stars.

Bailey Buntain Talks about Bunheads

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Special Needs
Articles

Person-First or Identity-First? What Parents Should Know About Language in the Disability Community

Beyond Inspiration Porn: How to Talk to Your Child About Disability Representation in Movies and TV

Understanding Disability Culture: Identity, Community, and Pride for Families New to the Conversation

The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary

Stalkers on Lifetime TV

Bailey Buntain Talks about Bunheads

Find Providers Near You

Special Needs Articles

Person-First or Identity-First? What Parents Should Know About Language in the Disability Community

Beyond Inspiration Porn: How to Talk to Your Child About Disability Representation in Movies and TV

Understanding Disability Culture: Identity, Community, and Pride for Families New to the Conversation

The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary

Stalkers on Lifetime TV

Bailey Buntain Talks about Bunheads

Find Providers Near You

Special Needs
Articles