Language

We appreciate that language can be very emotive. Language and the meanings we attach to words play a crucial role on how we view and experience the world.

Operating under the social model of disability, we consider that barriers in our society create hardship as these can potentially result in lack of choice, control and loss of independence. Barriers can be physical, such as lack of accessible toilets or lifts in buildings, or can be due to people’s attitudes to difference. Hence, we believe that people are disabled by the society due to lack of information, infrastructure, awareness and understanding. This is not only reflected on how we structure our cities, conduct our relationships or business but also on the language we use to communicate.

We try to accommodate people’s personal preferences where possible but also understand that we are all unique and it can be hard to ensure that the ways in which we describe and define suit everybody. The way we define terms may differ from person to person or amongst different cultures and languages.

Certain terms that we would like to define include:

• • Therapeutic – Describes the activities that have therapeutic benefits and increase a person’s health and well-being.
  • Autism – The way we use the terms ‘People with Autism’, ‘Autistic People’ and ‘People on the Autism spectrum’ reflect the preferences of our travellers and we do not seek to cause offence to either people who would like to be referred to as a person with Autism or people who would prefer the terms Autistic person or person on the Autism spectrum.
  • Access Needs – Adjustments that need to be made to ensure travellers have their needs met, can access the environment as fully as possible.
  • Accessible – This means that adjustments have been made to meet certain access needs, please ask.
  • Fully Accessible – this means that adjustments have been made to accommodate access needs for both Physical and Hidden Disabilities.
  • Disability – Refers to people who are dis-abled because their environment doesn’t accommodate their needs.
  • Hidden Disability – Where someone is disabled by their environment in a way that may not be immediately or visibly evident.
  • Environment – The physical attributes of the space, atmosphere, ambience, acoustics, smell, touch of a place.