What Is Dignity?

Or: Searching for the True Meaning of Dignity

Photo by Dave Lowe on Unsplash

Image Description: The word DIGNITY is carved into worn pink marble stone. In the faded background is a green field and leafy trees.

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When I began contemplating this month-long series of newsletters devoted to understanding dignity, I felt compelled to look up the definition to better grasp the baseline concept. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines dignity as “the quality or state of being worthy of honor or respect”. Google provided an even more detailed understanding:

“Dignity is the inherent, non-negotiable worth and value belonging to every human being from birth, regardless of status, merit, or actions. It involves self-worth, respectful treatment of others, and integrity. Cultivated through respectful behavior, it serves as a foundational human right.”

Reading this, I felt like I had just been body-slammed by a champion wrestler. The level of detail about all humans being worthy of dignity and respectful treatment just knocked me over. That is definitely NOT what I was expecting.

True Dignity Is Not an Assault

The way that the word dignity has been used against me throughout my entire life as a disabled person has felt like the complete opposite of that gorgeous definition. I have been devalued, dehumanized, and disrespected repeatedly all in the name of “protecting my dignity” without asking what I actually needed or wanted, or (heaven forbid) letting me decide for myself. In other words: my common experience with dignity has been centered on stripping it from me as a disabled person rather than supporting my own desires and decisions.

Image Description: Scene from the Princess Bride movie when Inigo says to Vizzini “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

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Another Google query to delve deeper into the concept returned with:

“Disability and dignity are fundamentally linked, emphasizing that people with disabilities are entitled to respect, autonomy, and equal rights. Dignity is often threatened by stigmatization, infantilization, and systemic barriers, which can restrict independence and cause harm. Maintaining dignity involves recognizing personhood, ensuring self-determination, and removing environmental barriers.”

Dignity Defined by Disabled People

One of the citations noted in reference was a terrific paper, Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability, published in 2023 that used interviews with disabled people to develop a robust concept of disability dignity:

“Dignity was contingent on the acknowledgement of personhood and the delivery of human rights. Our research identified five key aspects to maintain and protect dignity: (1) acknowledging personhood; (2) recognising people with disability as decision-makers of their lives; (3) realising the right to access information; (4) maintaining the right to privacy; and (5) eliminating or minimising barriers to accessibility and inclusion. Undignified experiences that resulted from a lack of acknowledgement negatively affected participants’ wellbeing, and healthcare settings were identified as particularly challenging environments for dignity.”

Simply put, this explains the many failures in respecting my human dignity that I have experienced as a disabled person and perfectly reflects the story recounted in my previous newsletter about my time spent in physical rehab. The in-patient rehab removed my ability to make most choices for myself — including my selection of workout clothing — and refused to engage me in direct conversation about it (instead calling my husband).

The facility robbed me of all aspects of dignity defined above by: (1) failing to acknowledge my personhood by refusing to speak directly with me; (2) refusing to recognize that I should be making the decisions about my life; (3) not providing access to my own information (especially concerning my medications); (4) repeatedly violating my privacy; (5) and not at all addressing barriers to inclusion. Even more disturbingly, the actions carried out by the facility staff was done under the guise of “we are doing this to protect your dignity,” when it definitely wasn’t.

Unfortunately, the researcher’s assertions that this lack of respecting disability dignity is common in the healthcare space is about 1,000% correct as examples of this occurred during all of my hospitalizations, at many medical appointments, and even sometimes when I am not even the patient — when I am just being present for my husband at his appointments!

Erasure of Disabled Dignity

If we pull back the perspective a little to think more broadly, a lack of disability dignity can be found in many areas of life — not just medical care. For example, another research paper examined “Disability and dignity-enabling home environments”. While the study took place in Canada, the findings are similar to what many people in the U.S. experience:

“Analyses suggested seven threshold conditions necessary for a dignity-enabling home: the ability to form and sustain meaningful relationships; access to community and civic life; access to control and flexibility of daily activities; access to opportunities for self-expression and identity affirmation; access to respectful relationships with attendants; access to opportunities to participate in school, work or leisure; access to physical, psychological and ontological security. The results have implications for housing, health and social care policies, and political reform. Social dignity provides a normative ethical grounding for assessing the adequacy of home environments.”

The fight in this country continues for a “dignity-enabling home” that embraces community inclusion, access to activities and services (like transportation), and societal participation — all of this made possible with appropriate supports like professional or family caregivers. Yet still, these basic rights that many nondisabled people take for granted are being removed from disabled people through cuts to Medicaid, assaults on paying family caregivers for their hard work, and the many daily attacks on vital home- and community-based services that disabled people depend on for living their lives with dignity.

It all boils down to a lack of recognizing the basic of the humanity (and therefore inherent, inarguable possession of dignity) of disabled people. Until a broader range of society conceives of disabled people as human beings, we will be endlessly disrespected. Ultimately, I believe that dignity is not something that others can bestow — it is just inherent in our being, waiting to be honored and recognized.

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