Functional diversity or disability? Social and conceptual challenges of the new educational paradigms (¿Diversidad funcional o discapacidad? Retos sociales y conceptuales de los nuevos paradigmas educativos)

Abstract

Before discussing what functional diversity is, it is important to know the terms that refer to it in our language, in this case Spanish, as well as the most appropriate ones and the ones we should eliminate from our vocabulary because they are pejorative. Why is the term with which we refer to people who belong to this group so important? There may be people who think that it does not matter which term is used to refer to individuals with functional diversity and that what really matters is the way they are treated and our attitudes towards them. They are not wrong, but reality is constructed largely unconsciously based on a society’s language usage. Therefore, we can assert that using a given word will directly affect our conception of the object or subject to which we are referring when we use that word. Why are there different ways to understand and address this issue? Functional diversity or disability? Which is the right term? What do the experts say?

Disguising success or experiencing failure: how should we understand social and educational inclusion? (Disfrazar el éxito o vivir el fracaso: ¿cómo debería entenderse la inclusión social y educativa?)

“…Incluso si tratamos de cambiar el lenguaje y utilizamos la expresión ‘diversidad funcional’ en lugar de ‘discapacidad’, como se ha hecho en muchos países, no por ello disminuye esa valoración desigual. La expresión ‘diversidad funcional’ puede resultar más respetuosa y menos hiriente para muchas personas (Sennet-Ramos, 2020), pero no consigue ocultar la realidad estructural de nuestra sociedad.…”

“…Even if we try to change the language and use the term ‘functional diversity’ instead of ‘disability’, as has been done in several countries around the world, the unequal evaluation does not decrease as a result. The term ‘functional diversity’ may be more respectful and less hurtful for many people (Sennet-Ramos, 2020), but it fails to hide the structural reality of our society.…”