Person with functional diversity

This is a person who uses alternatives—that differ from what the majority of the population uses—to carry out certain tasks. For example, a person with a hearing impairment uses sign language to communicate, instead of words and hearing like the rest of the hearing population. Or a person with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair, which serves the same function for movement as legs do for people who use that body part for this task.

This type of self-recognition values the richness of human diversity and the multiple ways there are to be. The goal is to change the idea of deficiency, limitation, and restriction that persists in language, while recognizing that ‘women and men with functional diversity are different—from the biophysical point of view—from the rest of the population. Because they have different characteristics—and given the environmental conditions created by society—they are forced to carry out the same tasks or functions in a different way, sometimes through a third person.’ (Palacios & Romañach, p. 108).

However, there are organizations and people with disabilities who are openly against this term; they believe it does not revindicate the specific needs and aspirations of people with disabilities. They argue that in the effort to use more inclusive language, the word fails to address the exclusions that they face and their battles. Ultimately, we all function differently and we have diverse abilities, with or without a disability (Plena Inclusión, 2017).