Confronting words: driving a new legal lexicon of disability

This article is about words - the words used to describe people with disability and those who assist them. It confronts the problem of finding the right words, tackling in the ALRC inquiry into the legal recognition of people with disability and their exercise of legal capacity, reflective of the dignity of all people. It describes the challenge of developing the 'new lexicon' in conjunction with developing National Decision-Making Principles, and places this in the historical context of the language of disability in law. It also recognises that, although changing language does not change everything, it is an important first step: to confront the confronting words.