title: Say what you mean: rethinking disability language in Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly.
abstract: Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly (APAQ) currently mandates that authors use person-first language in their publications. In this viewpoint article, we argue that although this policy is well intentioned, it betrays a very particular cultural and disciplinary approach to disability: one that is inappropriate given the international and multidisciplinary mandate of the journal. Further, we contend that APAQ's current language policy may serve to delimit the range of high-quality articles submitted and to encourage both theoretical inconsistency and the erasure of the ways in which research participants self-identify. The article begins with narrative accounts of each of our negotiations with disability terminology in adapted physical activity research and practice. We then provide historical and theoretical contexts for person-first language, as well as various other widely circulated alternative English-language disability terminology. We close with four suggested revisions to APAQ's language policy.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peers
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Spencer-Cavaliere
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Eales
mesh_terms: D035081:Editorial Policies; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D012106:Research; D009626:Terminology as Topic