{"id":7573,"date":"2022-01-03T17:46:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=7573"},"modified":"2022-01-03T17:46:56","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:46:56","slug":"showing-respect-in-dutch-invaliden-and-handicaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/showing-respect-in-dutch-invaliden-and-handicaps\/","title":{"rendered":"Showing Respect in Dutch: Invaliden and Handicaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I grew up, a person with a disability was known in the Netherlands as an\u00a0invalide<\/em>. This doesn’t mean they are “invalid”, of course. It comes from French\u00a0invalide<\/em>, which in turn goes back to Latin\u00a0invalidus<\/em> – the opposite of\u00a0validus<\/em>, which means strong and healthy. So to say that having a disability makes you\u00a0invalid<\/em>, in other words,\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>strong and healthy, is quite harsh, seen as\u00a0discriminerend <\/em>(discriminatory)\u00a0– and it’s not accurate, either. The Dutch have shifted to the word mindervalide<\/em> instead to highlight this. Mindervalide\u00a0<\/em>means “less valid”, so less able. But what are good alternatives?<\/p>\n

Click here for all posts on Showing Respect in Dutch<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Invalide, mindervalide\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>– less valid people?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

However, mindervalide<\/em>, while now more widely used than\u00a0invalide<\/em>, is of course still not preferable. After all, mindervalide\u00a0<\/em>still sounds like that person is less able and less strong – or even, less valid. And yet, you will still see it. I saw it at the\u00a0ingang voor mindervaliden <\/em>(entrance for less valids) at the Rechtbank <\/em>(court) of Haarlem, for example,<\/p>\n

\"Mindervalide<\/a>

Photo by Matt Artz<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

So can’t Dutch do what English does? There’s the difference in English between the terms “disabled person” and “person with a disability<\/strong>“. The former sounds like the person is not able, period. The latter gives space for the person to be recognized as such. They are a person first and foremost, and they just happen to also have a disability.<\/p>\n

Actually, we can! The city of Amsterdam has guidance<\/a> on\u00a0gevoelige en te vermijden woorden\u00a0<\/em>(sensitive words and words to avoid). In it, they advise to use\u00a0gehandicapte\u00a0<\/em>(handicapped person)<\/strong> or\u00a0iemand met een beperking\u00a0<\/em>(somebody with a disability)<\/strong>, and\u00a0never<\/span>\u00a0invalide\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0mindervalide<\/em><\/strong>. They say that it means\u00a0minderwaardig\u00a0<\/em>(inferior) or\u00a0ongeldig\u00a0<\/em>(invalid).<\/p>\n

You should also avoid this in\u00a0samengestelde woorden\u00a0<\/em>(compound nouns)<\/a>. So then it’s\u00a0gehandicaptenparkeerplaats\u00a0<\/em>(parking for handicapped people) instead of\u00a0invalidenparkeerplaats\u00a0<\/em>(parking for “invalid” people).<\/p>\n

Gehandicapte\u00a0<\/em>is seen as fine, as a\u00a0handicap\u00a0<\/em>is a\u00a0belemmering\u00a0<\/em>(impediment) to successfully doing a task. So, for example, a persoon in een <\/em>rolstoel\u00a0<\/em>(person in a wheelchair) has a\u00a0handicap<\/em> that prevents them from walking up stairs.<\/p>\n

But with mental disabilities, this isn’t really the same. It’s not that their intellect is somehow “broken”, like a broken leg. It’s that they have an impediment that makes understanding and doing things a challenge. So instead of saying geestelijk gehandicapt\u00a0<\/em>(mentally handicapped)<\/strong>, you should use\u00a0verstandelijk beperkt\u00a0<\/em>(intellectually\/mentally challenged)<\/strong>. It’s a seemingly small difference, but it’s an important one!<\/p>\n

Despite this, words like\u00a0invalide<\/em>,\u00a0mindervalide\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0geestelijk gehandicapt\u00a0<\/em>are still widely used. Little changes like this can make a real difference, however, to show respect!<\/p>\n

And that’s what this series will be about! I hope you’ll enjoy a look into some of these words and how they can be made more inclusive for all. Do you have a suggestion of a word for me to look at? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Mindervalide

When I grew up, a person with a disability was known in the Netherlands as an\u00a0invalide. This doesn’t mean they are “invalid”, of course. It comes from French\u00a0invalide, which in turn goes back to Latin\u00a0invalidus – the opposite of\u00a0validus, which means strong and healthy. So to say that having a disability makes you\u00a0invalid, in other…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590],"tags":[3608,358682,551543,551544],"class_list":["post-7573","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","tag-dutch","tag-dutch-culture","tag-sensitive-language","tag-showing-respect-in-dutch"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7576,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions\/7576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}