Le handicap: quels mots pour vivre (avec)?

All human beings share one and the same set of fundamental rights, as different as they can be in terms of natural endowment and biographical vicissitudes. The fact itself that the word “disability” still appears to entail a negative bias in the evaluation of the situation a person has to live with, shows that stigmatization, discrimination and disdain are always a risk. This contribution builds on a different perspective. The commitment to protecting people from the consequences of their vulnerability, the recognition of their equal dignity, and the determination to provide a concrete and effective institutional framework for inclusion, highlight crucial issues that concern the human condition as such. Science can play a decisive role to boost these principles and put them into practice. The way we consider our responsibility for disability is an evidence of the way we live our mutual responsibility as human beings.