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Personal Preferences in Identifying Disabilities

Why respecting the words someone chooses to use to describe their disability is so important

The language used to describe people with disabilities is constantly changing. The best way to be considerate of others is to open up a dialogue about what language they would prefer you to use.
The language used to describe people with disabilities is constantly changing. The best way to be considerate of others is to open up a dialogue about what language they would prefer you to use.

Finding and defining the appropriate terms to use for any given group is an ongoing process that happens with every movement, but the best approach to navigating it is to be willing to ask others what words they are most comfortable using.

The use of language and words describing people with disabilities has changed over time, and will continue to change for years to come. This is a naturally-evolving process that occurs with every civil rights movement, as we collectively learn how to improve the ways in which we talk about people with disabilities in the media, workplace, or simply in everyday conversations.

While it’s important to be aware of the meaning behind the words we use when discussing or working with people in the disability community, we must also not become so preoccupied with concerns about saying the wrong thing that we avoid the subject entirely.

Personal preferences can make navigating the landscape of language both nuanced and subjective – some people may prefer identity-first language over person-first language, i.e. a disabled person vs. a person with a disability. Ultimately the decision is one of personal choice, and the best way to be considerate of others is to open up a dialogue about what language they would prefer you to use.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.