Humanizing Terms

Commonly used, outdated terms (Words to avoid)	Culturally competent/Humanizing term	Explanation/Rationale
Minorities	Minoritized people	Similar with slaves/enslaved, shifting from noun to verb places focus on the process/action that is being done.
Underrepresented	Historically excluded	Underrepresentation suggests fault on the part of those excluded, historically excluded reframes to place onus on purposeful exclusionary policies and practices
Slaves	Enslaved people	Slaves implies that the role was a property of the individual, rather than something that was done to a group of people, as enslaved does
complicated: dyslexia, autism (see explanation)– in any case don’t use “suffered” as in “suffers from dyslexia” or “suffers from autism”	“X is autistic” “an autistic person” seems to be preferred, but see explanation	Some students may refer to themselves as dyslexic (as in “I’m dyslexic”) and may prefer that you refer to others as dyslexic rather than people with dyslexia. The same goes with autism and membership in the deaf community. It may, however, be that you are more comfortable using people first language, in case others get the wrong idea when you talk about autism and dyslexia. So this one is tricky — there are pros and cons to saying “autistic person” “dyslexic person” vs. person with autism, person with dyslexia — my tendency would be to go with the pride language — autistic person. For example, I chose this when writing a recommendation for an autistic student. I said something like “Bob is autistic” rather than Bob has autism. He read the recommendation and told me he thought it was “perfect” and so did not seem to object to my use of the pride language.
retarded, intellectually disabled, cognitively disabled, cognitively impaired	person with intellectual and developmental disabilities	People-first language seems to be preferred.
hearing-impaired	*Deaf, deaf, or hard-of-hearing	Deaf = member of the Deaf community; hard-of-hearing is preferred term for those who are not members of the deaf community. Here’s a link — https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/community-and-culture-frequently-asked-questions/
Disorder (Mental Health)	When speaking generally, substitute the word “concern” as all are subject to mental health distress of varying degrees. Use the term disorder when technically necessary, as in DSM diagnosis.
At-risk	Drop the label and just use “students” or term for the intended population.	Deficit-based; “Risk” should describe a condition or situation, not a person.
criminal / inmate	incarcerated person/person who is incarcerated/person with a conviction/person connected to the criminal legal system	Limit labeling and identifying people by specific actions.
Indian/Native American* (not necessarily wrong but see comment)	All of these terms are acceptable. The consensus, however, is that whenever possible, Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name. In the United States, Native American has been widely used but is falling out of favor with some groups. The terms American Indian or indigenous American are preferred by many Native people.	https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/faq/did-you-know