Now that the trip has ended and I am sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane home, I am reflecting on how much I learned on this trip and the amazing experience that this has been. I am so fortunate to have been able to take part in this program, meet so many new people and make so many new friends.

Throughout the conference, one of the reoccurring thoughts that I had was about the importance of language both in a social and legal contexts. During the recap of the breakout sessions on the last day of the conference, one of the delegates said that in order to push things forward and get things done, we must “value and revalue language”. I thought that this was interesting because each day after the conference, a small group of us would gather and talk about our thoughts from the day. Most days, the topic of language came up.

One of the foremost thoughts about language came from the topic of “mad studies”. I think many of us were thrown off by this term because it is not something that has reached the US. This brought forward the idea that different words and phrases are used in different countries and have different meanings depending on location. It also triggered a conversation about when and how we know which words are or are not acceptable to use. We talked about how the speakers said that the word “mad” was used in order to ‘reclaim’ it from all of the offensive or derogatory ways that it has been used. We talked about how in the US words such as “retarded”, “sped”, “special education” and “special needs” used to be commonly used but now often times have derogatory meanings. We talked about the evolution of language and at what point is the line drawn for creating new words tow avoid those that may be considered offensive.

Furthermore, language also served as a reoccurring theme within a legal framework at the conference. While discussing the CRPD, the speakers explained why it was important for certain Articles to be structured the way that they are and why certain clauses are worded in certain ways. In particular, one of the speakers talked about how “disability” is not defined because it would give way to people using it as a way to avoid providing people with necessary accommodations.

I have learned so much from this trip and I’m sad that it has come to an end so quickly.