WHAT IF WE REMOVE THE STIGMA?

Tara Carman-French-Director/ADHD Coach

​WHY THE TERM "DISABILIY" DOESN'T WORK

Diagnosis of a learning disability, ADHD, or Autism is a challenging experience. If it is your child, you may feel heartbroken for the challenges they are experiencing and the ones you see ahead of them. If the diagnosis is for yourself, you might grieve for what could have been while also feeling relief that you now understand what was in your way the whole time.

You might have avoided diagnosis for a long time, fearing any stigma attached to the labels.

Early in my career, I was taught that learning disability means difference. We could have called it anything, but the chosen term was “disability,” so that is the term we needed to use in our reports for our clients to receive support.

​I still dislike this word.

For the past decade, I have worked with our colleagues to find new ways of talking and thinking about Learning Disability, ADHD, & Autism Spectrum Disorder. Daily, I work with my clients to figure out their ADHD Superpower. We focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. In the clinic, we still have to perform the same tests. Yes, a diagnosis still must be formulated and communicated. But we can talk and think about it differently.

I have always advocated for all accommodations to be offered to all students at all times. This would remove stigmas and create a level field for everyone to learn. Yes, if these disabilities didn't require clinical identification anymore, we might have to change our business model. However, the loss to our business would create significant gains for all students and society as a whole. 

Mine are not unique thoughts. 

In many Indigenous languages, there is no word, or comparable word, for disability. It is not understood the same way.

Indigenous cultures have historically had a kinder, clearer, and more open perspective on learning and mental health differences. This enables them to more easily adapt to individuals' educational and communal needs. Today, Indigenous Peoples are working to establish or maintain Indigenous ways of understanding “learning disabilities” within their school systems.

Individuals are welcomed in the school community rather than separated. Strengths are promoted, and weaknesses are supported, notably without needing identification. Individuals with more severe needs are equally supported in a community that succeeds through interdependence and individual service as accountability. 

There is no stigma. Can you imagine?

There is only support and belonging.

I wish this for all of our clients and will continue to advocate for inclusion, understanding, and dissolution of all mental health stigmas.
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It is not my voice that should talk about the intricacies of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Please visit the links below to hear or read their words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5GuKGke1p4

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2023/06/18/indigeneity-and-disability-the-teachings-of-our-ancestors-and-being-in-relation-towards-harmonious-outcomes/

https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/download/645/899

Tara Carman-French nitishnikas. Windsor oonchi. I live on the traditional territory of the Anishnaabeg people of the Three Fires Confederacy (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa.) I am a settler of Scottish and British descent on this territory. My degree is in Indigenous Studies and English from the University of Toronto. I wrote this article as my way of honouring Indigenous peoples and their ways of knowing and being during National Indigenous History Month.