(left to right) Chelsea Rinquinha of Kitimat, Bryce Schaufelberger of Mission, and Tami Pederson of Kamloops delivered an opening keynote at the annual Canadian Health and Wellbeing in Developmental Disabilities Conference.
Earlier this year, over 200 doctors, health workers, managers, caregivers and others came together online to hear something unique—an opening keynote called “Words Matter” by three leaders in B.C.’s self-advocacy movement: Chelsea Rinquinha of Kitimat, Tami Pederson of Kamloops and Bryce Schaufelberger of Mission.
Speaking at the 4th annual Canadian Health and Wellbeing in Developmental Disabilities Conference, Chelsea, Tami and Bryce shared how words used by service providers affect people with developmental disabilities. It was an important moment for Chelsea, who said, “So many people don’t think a person with a disability can be a leader.”
The presentation was based on a series of three “Words Matter” reports published by the British Columbia Self-Advocate Leadership Network Society (BCSALN). “For years, people with disabilities have not had very much control over the way society ‘refers’ to them,” says the first report written in 2020. “SALN believes it is time to … think about supporting self-advocates and people with disabilities to lead the change in language that is imposed on them.” Read the “Words Matter” reports here. Email SALNBC19@gmail.com to request a presentation for your organization.
“When they [service providers] speak about me,” said Chelsea, “they use my initials, which really does not make me feel good at all. It feels insulting. They say this is for confidentiality, but it just adds to the frustration that people with disabilities face. It shouldn’t become a barrier for people when it comes to advocating for self-respect.”
Megan Primeau, Conference Director, said, “What the presenters did really well was to challenge habitual language. Some words don’t sound bad, but they made us consider how it feels to receive those words.”
As one participant explained, “This was very meaningful and made me consider language that I never thought about before—definitely changed how I will use, or better yet not use, certain terms.”
Another example that attendees discussed was the word “non-verbal.” Chelsea, Bryce and Tami shared how this word is a harmful label that makes people “forget the person” who uses other ways to communicate.
One participant commented, “It really put things into perspective and challenged me to think about the words I use in my everyday work.”
“It’s important that people feel valued in society,” said Bryce, “Using respectful language helps build trusting relationships, where they can teach you and you can teach them.”
Tami wanted doctors to use more plain language. “They need to make sure they use words we can understand so we do not have to rely on a support worker.”
One of the important values of the conference is to ensure the self-advocate voice is front and centre, said Megan. “Self-advocates are meaningfully involved in planning, and as emcees and presenters, including as the opening keynote. Most of the feedback we get is about the positive impact of the self-advocate voices.”
This year the BCSALN group was no different, getting the most “Excellent” ratings of all the keynote presentations, and with over half of general comments being about their presentation.