Adults With Developmental Disabilities

I just returned from the Supported Life Conference in Sacramento. I had a table where I was displaying and selling our SNAP Curriculum. Once again, there was a lot of interest in our curriculum since it is designed to support adults with developmental disabilities, and there isn't a lot of material out there written for adults.

But I want to share a story that was sooo frustrating to me...

A woman approached my table at one point and she started looking at the books I had layed out. I noticed that her name tag identified her as a speaker for the conference. I viewed that as very inmpressive - to be invited to share your expertise with a whole conference full of people says something about your experience and abilities in the field.

I launched into my spiel about the curriculum and how it meets the needs of consumers. I had hardly started speaking when she inturrupted me and said, "You have to take this word out!" She was pointing to the word "consumer" in the material. She began to lecture me on how the word consumer" is a label and we simply cannot label people like that.

When she finished her lecture, I resumed my spiel.

Almost immediately she stopped me again. Apparently I had said the word "consumer." She lectured me again about how I have to get that word out of my vocabulary because we cannot label people! It does such a disservice to them.

I asked her how I am supposed to refer to the people with whom we work. She announced that we should refer to them as "the people we serve."

I asked, ""Isn't that still a label? Is your label a better one than the one the rest of us use?"

She blinked and I immediately dismissed her from my mind and turned to talk to people who were interested in the material I was offering to support our consumers... I mean our people we serve.

Actually, I didn't immediately dismiss her from my mind. My immediate thought was, "I have a label for you, lady. You're an idiot!" Then I dismissed her.

She wandered off, completely unaware of what our curriculum was about, or how it might just help staff serve consumers better. She wasn't interested in that. She was so focused on labels, that she skipped right over actually providing quality service.

I have run across several people lately who are label focused to the point that it interferes with their ability to see what consumers needs are and how we might deal with them to help them overcome their barriers to a community inclusive life. How sad for those people.

I couldn't help but wonder what her topic was for the conference, and if she had been invited to lecture people on labels instead of offering suggestions and solutions.