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Disabled people are also parents, partners, children, employees, artists and sportspeople.
Their age, ethnic or religious identity, their gender, their profession and where they live are all likely to define who they are, what they think, what information they need and where they get it.
Some disabled people consciously adopt `disabled person' as a positive way of describing themselves because they regard their experience of discrimination or disadvantage as a defining part of who they are.
They see impairments and health conditions as a normal part of the human condition and believe the human society has erected barriers that disable them and stop them living ordinary lives.
Others do not feel this sense of disability pride and do not focus on discrimination as what determines the course of their lives. They may feel ashamed or embarrassed by their impairment or health condition or it may cause them pain or distress.
The representing disability effectively section of this guidance looks at how disabled people's lives can be reflected in government communications accurately, neither glorifying or trivialising the experience of impairment or ill health.
It is particularly important for government communicators to remember that people can be disabled by the way that services are provided and the attitudes and behaviour of others.
Low expectations of and among disabled people affect education and employment prospects, their health and their standard of living.
On the whole, disabled people tend to be poorer and in poorer health, have fewer skills are more likely to be unemployed and have less access to the internet and information generally.
For example, there are 2 million people in the UK who have problems with reading because of how publications are produced. Yet just 4 per cent of books published in the UK are put into a format that someone with a visual impairment or dyslexia can use.
As government communicators, we must adopt an inclusive approach and consider all segments of our audiences to inform, engage and change behaviour and to deliver the government's objectives.
For practical tips, visit the top tips section of this guidance.
For other information resources, go to the resources section of this guidance.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008