Disability PC seems to be a popular topic on other disab conferences
I've taken part in, let's have a go-around here. 

11 responses total.

Since I started this, I refer to myself as an AK amputee or "amp"
to my amp friends. More generally, I refer to myself as disabled.
I hate the more recent terms (e.g. physically challenged), I think
they are mostly lip service offered in lieu of real increases in
access, etc.

In his book Price refers to himself and other physically disabled
as gimps.I don't mind being called a gimp by another gimp, but
not by nondisabled.

I agree with Jill.  I have an in-law who makes remarks about "cripples"
(particularly when it comes to parking spaces).  It still hurst me,
even though I can jokingly refer to myself that way.

My experience is to hate the term "hearing Impaired" which is negative. I
agree with mcmud and suzi.  The term "Deaf and Dumb" is long gone.  The 
hearing  society and "normals" apply terms for separationism in a form of
superiority. It raises to my mind the question...WHO IS REALLY NORMAL?
The deaf community prefers the term DEAF and I will call myself a deafie but
anyone else who does so and is not deaf needs to have a big smile on his/her
face!  In this age of AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, THERE ARE THOSE WHO
ATTEMPT TO EXPLOIT THE SITUATION.  Persons with a disability have to speak up
to preserve hard fought rights provided through this ACT.  Sensitive
terminology should be acquired from the category who live 24 hours a day with
the category.  For example, the Blind call themselves "Blinks" but I would
never dream of calling that category such.  Thanks mcmud for telling me what to
call you.  We need more of this!

The term "hearing impaired " is commonly used in the federal gov't to 
describe those who are profoundly deaf and those who can heaer with 
"assistance devises".  I am not trying to argue, as a hearing person
I have no right, but to explain why I tend to use the term.

Does it make sense?  My deaf friends (employees who no longer work
directly for me) call profoundly deaf people "deaf" and do not 
tend to move in the same social circles as people who hear with 
a hearing aid.

Perhaps the inlaws who say "cripples" are from the same generation as my FIL,
who says coloreds still, instead of blacks/African-Americans.  They
don't mean as much offense and condescension as their words imply,
but the choice of words grates.  

My kids go to a public school with lots of integration.  Deaf and
other handicapped children are in the classrooms for part to full days,
(this is elementary level)there is a "total communication" (deaf)
school-within-a school to meet the needs of the deaf children (this is a
regioinal center) and the TC school has it'sown full lprincipal.  The kids are
used to amplifiers, hearing aids, interpreters, TDDs, walkers, crutches, etc. 
To each the hand he is dealt is the overwhelming attitude--you  help your
neighbor, not pity/judge.  ASL is taught with Spanish and French and German as
electives.  It's also used in the classrooms.

My reason for explaining this is to relate a shock my oldest encountered
when she entered the schools 'gifted' program, which takes kids from a 
number of other elem schools.... one of the kids from another school starated
making fun of a  (sorry about the typing) startedmaking fun of a deaf child,
behind the child's back.  Although the deaf kid never knew what was going on,
the children who had attended the school since kindergarten all turned on the
malicious one, and according to my daughet, let him know that was not 
acceptable behavior at his new school.  I believe he was considered a  jerk and
a showoff who had trouble gaining acceptance with his new peers.

I don't like to see the word "disabled" applied to everyone with
a physical or mental limitation of any kind, and I don't like to 
see "disability" appled to those limitations.  In the forst place,
"disability" generally means "something that prevents you from
working," and that isn't always the case.  I know a man who was 
a surgeon until he started losing his hearing in his mid 30s.  He
was totally deaf by the time he was 40 - but in the meanwhile, he
had retrained as a radiologist and was making more than he had ever
made as a surgeon.  To him, his hearing loss might have been a
disability, but he stopped that from happening.  Without being very
PC at all, he will not accept the term "disability" with regard
to his hearing loss.  I used to work with a guy who was in a wheelchair
as the result of a spinal cord injury many years ago.  He never
stopped working - never even slowed down - and never intends to.
But the term seems cast in concrete at this point, so I don't
suppose there's much use complaining about it.  I would love to
know what everyone else thinks about this.  [My own "disability,"
if you could call it that, is a condition called Reflex Sympathetic
Dystrophy.  I got very, very lucky in the early stages of treatment,
and escaped the worst consequences of it.  I'd be interested to
hear from anyone who has experienced this condition, or who knows
anyone who has.]

It is true that "disability" means different things in different
contexts.  My former employer, Ford Motor Company, considered me
"disabled" (or unable to work) I believe mainly because they did not
want the possible liabilities of dealing with special needs.  When
they "suggested" that I retire at 35 years of age I felt that I was
still very capable of performing in my job.  Strangely enough, the
Social Security people did not consider me disabled either (although
I understand they have since accepted most multiple sclerosis claims
without question).  I lead a full, active life and although I am
sometimes bedridden or in a chair, most of the time I get around
quite well.  Sometimes corporations are too swift to give the boot
to someone with a disability, especially at a time when that person
most needs to feel they are still capable and worth their pay.

my 2 cents...as a home health aide, I work closely with a TBI patient who 
refers to himself as "crippled" because it is discriptive of his condition. 
The thing that bothers me (a lot) is the way he's treated in public. Because
his gait is slow and jerky, and his speech slightly slurred, people tend to 
assume that he is "slow", and are very condescending. I think it bothers
me more than it does him, because he is so good-natured. I guess what I
want to say is that I wish more people would realize that a person with a
damaged or malfunctioning body does not always have "diminished smarts".

An old business acquaintance of mine has MS, and went through
a stage where his speech was slurred and he had to drag himself
around on crutches and leg braces.  Deplaning once after a trip,
he stopped when he reached the pilot and copilot, grabbed the
pilot's hat and put it on his own head, then turned to face the
other deplaning passengers and started saying, "Thanks for flying
Northwest.  Join us again.  Thanks for flying Northwest..."

Ah!  The greatest barrier of them all....ATTITUDES of those who do not
understand and do not really try to understand.  (This omits the ones who are
"just uneducated about disabilities")   I remember an old maxim which was
short but to the point.  I think it was a philosopher, named H.....????
"DOGS BARK AT STRANGE THINGS".   Interpretation of this can be that people
will complain, criticize, condemn, and resist things which are different.
Our beliefs have great impact upon our attitudes toward things or other people
   Walk a mile in my moccasins.....experiences can be an eye-opener.

Ok, well to attempt to resurrect a discussion five years gone, I
personally resist calling myself a disabled person.  I choose to call
myself a person with a disability because the inversion subtly stresses
my humanity rather than the fact of my blindness.  I do not object to
the word disabled because it is accurate, I am unable to see at this
time of my life.  I will call myself blind, since it is descriptive and
to the point, but again, I will attemppt to make sure that this is not
the central focus of self-identification.

Language is a tricky thing in this arena as in others.  The trick here
is to find the balance between conveying the facts of a person's
physical capabilities or lack thereof with not drawing the exclusive
attention of a listener to something which is not the sole defining
aspect of life with a disability.  I find this to be a somewhat
controversial position among PWDs (the latest PC generic term, people
with disabilities) as some firmly believe that living successfully with
the bodies and minds they are given or acquire through life, means
accepting the limitations imposed as *the* central fact of their
existence.  I must respectfully disagree.  As someone who cannot read or
write unassisted, who cannot drive, who cannot acquire information
through any of the growing variety of visual means, I feel that these
things constitute factors in my life.  But it is the people in my life
who form the core of my world, my loving fiancee, my friends, my daito
ryu training partners, my massage clients.  These peoplle mean more to
me than the things I have to do differently because I can't see.  So I
practice massage therapy, I laugh and cry with my people, you can talk
to me in time of stress, so long as I can tell you from time to time,
please wait, I'm overloaded myself, I dance naked in the woods given
half a chance, I worship in the natural world, I cook nyummy food and
enjoy cooking with a loved one as an act of bonding as much as for the
good food that will result.  And I am blind, I have a disability.

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