Linguistic labels of disabled people in Colombian news outlets

Abstract Disability can be understood as a (subtle) physical and/or mental condition, or as a representation of legal, medical, and media discourses that construct non-normative bodies as deviant. Language plays an essential role in the construction of disability through, for example, the use of linguistic labeling and naming practices (i.e., “disabled person”, “handicapped”, etc.). These linguistic practices have not been fully explored in Colombian media and it remains critical to (a) identify labels of how news outlets represent this underserved community based on ideological preferences, and (b) investigate the use of person-first language (i.e., person with disabilities) vs. identity-first language (i.e., disabled person). Thus, this exploratory study aims at filling this gap by using a corpus-based approach with a large collection of Colombian news articles. Findings indicate that, unlike the press in English, Colombian media recurrently opts for person-first naming, with a relatively higher occurrence in the left-leaning press as compared to conservative-leaning outlets.