Distinctions

Every now and then I run into an important distinction, a way of phrasing something that highlights an essential difference.

When our minds get all tangled up in words and concepts, we can often identify the situation and say, “This is not right,” But sometimes it’s hard to identify just where something went wrong, or we don’t know how to explain things in a better way.

Frequently such frustrating situations result from people using one word to mean several things at the same time — they are conflating concepts, thus creating confusion. The delight of the English language is that it is so large and has so many different variations in wording, allowing us to make finer and better distinctions.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember all those fine distinctions, or to remember where I had originally written about them or stashed them. So I’m creating this file partly as a slushpile for myself, but I thought that such a thing might also be useful for other people. After each distinction, I’ve included my post from where it originated, to give some background explanation, or even just jog your interest. I hope this helps!

Naming the problem is not the same thing as solving it.

Doing things differently is NOT the same thing as doing things wrong.
Gripping News

“Making decisions” is not necessarily the same thing as “problem solving”

Empowerment is not doing things for people, but about giving or teaching people the things they need so they can choose for themselves and help themselves.

Too often people focus on surface issues, rather than on the underlying problems; such as focusing on the deciding how they are going to react to behavioural effects, rather than figuring out how to identify and resolve the behavioural causes.
Building blocks

“There is a difference between getting cured and getting healed.”

“Acceptance is not the same thing as resignation.”
Getting over the cure

Mere movement is not progress.
Overcoming inertia and moving into commitment, Part 1

The plural of anecdote is not data.

The plural of testimonial is not validation.
The plural of testimonial is not ____.

Assistive Devices are not the total solution to the problem, but rather, are part of the system of coping methods
But it’s NOT the same

“Fairness” is really three different things:
Equality is about treating everyone the same way because people have the same rights.
Equity is about recognizing and responding according to the amount of effort given by or achievement of a student. Equity can be best determined when everyone has the same equal opportunity.
The third of course is need. Not everyone needs the same things.
“It wouldn’t be fair.”

Being brave does not mean that you aren’t scared. Rather, being brave means that you do what you need to do, even when you are scared.

There’s also a big difference between challenging someone, and simply making things unnecessarily difficult for them.
Building a character

Paternalistic attitudes perpetuate the whole medical model of disability, and reinforce the warped picture the equates disabled people as helpless, hopeless victims needing cures and charity, rather than accommodation and equal social standing and social rights.
Animal Farm

People on the receiving end of emotional or physical violence are better described as targets, instead of as victims.
“That kind.”

It’s not that one of us must “make up for” the deficiencies of the other — that would put us into artificial dichotomies of able and disabled, forever relying upon the other in our respective rôles of an incomplete person needing the other to complete them. Rather, it’s that each of us could manage alone as competent individuals, but that together we enrich the other’s experiences of the world.
Social captioning

When human beings cannot operate well (or at all) in human environments, it is not the fault of the people, it’s bad design.
Operators are standing by

There are good distinctions between being selfish and being self-centered, between being vain and being proud, and between being stupid and being naïve.
The Words

Being alone is not the same thing as being lonely.
10 things to do ^DIFFERENTLY when on holiday: Redefining vacationing

Choices are between things you want, or at least will accept, not dilemmas or predicaments between bad option and worse option or intolerable option.
I didn’t ask for that

There are also a bunch of distinctions woven into: Random thoughts from the tub.