Individuals

What is up with the fact that organizations for disabled people, especially developmentally disabled people, are always calling them individuals? It sounds sort of fancy, so maybe it's supposed to be a term of respect. But it just sounds like a euphemism--which is really weird, because why do you need a euphemism for the word "people?" It sounds like a word you would use about animals or people who are in jail. It also doesn't sound like a word that the "individuals" in question would even use--isn't it desirable to use simple words when you're working with developmentally disabled people?

I think "___ people" is usually a nice phrase. It makes the group in question sound, well, real. A lot of the time, when someone is trying to point out that someone else is being a jerk, practically all they have to do is say "___ people." "Physically disabled people don't use wheelchairs just to inconvenience you, you know," they might say. And just the use of the phrase is so powerful. The dislocation of "people with visual impairment" or "people of faith" doesn't hit quite as hard, in my opinion, but the main thing is saying "people." Reminding you that all those Disableds, Blacks, Gays, and Middle Easterns eat breakfast, have relationship problems, enjoy comic books or professional sports, and/or are concerned about being late to something. This is exactly the point of saying things like Homosexuals or Minority Youth, to avoid that recognition.

I'm not trying to make a point here; it's just something that genuinely confuses me. "Individuals" is such a labored-sounding term that it seems like organizations are using it in reaction to something, but what? What would be wrong with saying "people?" It strikes me as medicalized. Also, though I'm not cynical enough to suggest this is on purpose, I feel that if an ASD or intellectually disabled person was reading/listening to something that referred to DD people as "individuals," that could pose a barrier to their understanding. (I'm not saying that ASD and ID people necessarily wouldn't know the word, but it is a sufficiently odd word that, in my opinion, the use of it makes statements harder to understand.)