Dear Editor,
Thanks for your paper鈥檚 recent review of Gabrielle.
As the parents of a daughter with Williams Syndrome, we鈥檙e pretty excited about the film and we are hoping that it will help raise awareness of this rare syndrome. The syndrome is in fact so rare that my wife Patti and I were pretty surprised to learn of a film headlined by WS.
Now then, we, as parents of a child with WS, would like to impart some words we discovered along our journey.
In the future, should your paper find itself writing about individuals with disabilities, please consider using 鈥減erson-first鈥� language鈥攄isabilities do not define 鈥淕abrielle鈥� nor our daughter Athena.
For example, individuals do not suffer from Williams Syndrome, they happen to have the syndrome, which is caused by a microdeletion of about 25 genes out of thousands, just as I am genetically pre-disposed to have hazel eyes. Neither are they 鈥渧ictims鈥� as your paper suggested. But they do have a greater ability than most to become victimized.
Your intentions are excellent but the wording is incorrect, that鈥檚 all. It may seem like semantics to some people, and it certainly would have to us before we became the parents of a child with WS, but words do matter, and person-first language does as well, particularly for a community such as the Williams Syndrome community, that often struggles to be seen.
Thanks again for reviewing the film, which will help raise awareness in Jasper of this rare condition.
Joe Urie
Jasper, Alta.
