Attempting to announce that the Loose Women presenter and driving force behind the Rights on Flights campaign had been announced as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, The Sun opted for the headline: ‘Cha Cha Chair’ with the subheadline ‘First wheelchair contestant’.
Responding on Twitter to the headline, Sophie said: “‘CHA, CHA, CHAIR….’ is this actually for real? @TheSun we need to have a word. I am NOT a wheelchair. I am a PERSON who uses a wheelchair.”
DR UK’s Media and Communications Manager Anna Morell said: “The language we use about Disabled people and disability matters. When national news outlets get this wrong, it perpetuates the bad standards which are embedded within the language society at large uses about disability.
“People don’t think twice about conflating people with their mobility aids. Such language literally turns a person into an object. It would be the equivalent of a Strictly headline about Jeremy Clarkson saying ‘Clar Clar Car – first car contestant’. It simply wouldn’t happen. We’ve still got a way to go to make people understand the difference.”
DR UK is encouraging people to complain to IPSO about the language used about Sophie.
There is a basic guide to language to use about disability on the gov.uk website.