tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504811174838510506.post8704112816321873572..comments2024-03-26T05:19:02.375-04:00Comments on @LawyeronWheels: "My child is dumb, deaf and lame"RStrzalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00397163144935580422noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504811174838510506.post-37524678365496800492013-03-21T01:16:49.684-04:002013-03-21T01:16:49.684-04:00Back in the mid-1970s, when I first began working ...Back in the mid-1970s, when I first began working with "retarded and handicapped" children, those were proper terms and not considered at all offensive. I can see why people wanted those terms changed, however. Both do carry negative connotations. Most labels used since that time have been far more positive. Some are even damned silly. I don't use silly terms. I will use politically correct terms if they feel correct rolling of of my tongue.<br /><br />Times change. Terms change. But overall, I have observed the same for more than 50 years. The same type of people continue to care and will also try to use terms that are fitting.<br /><br />Those same people will aid folks whose chair gets stuck at the side of a ramp, and then flips. Many of them will have a fantastic outlook on life, too. I was happy to hear that you met a couple of them when you needed them. I meet them sometimes, too. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504811174838510506.post-29823584715729008202012-06-30T16:01:48.215-04:002012-06-30T16:01:48.215-04:00Ralph,
The use of words and labels can be either ...Ralph,<br /><br />The use of words and labels can be either a limitation or freeing to a person! I think each person responds differently to the labels we use to describe them. When I was first encountering people which slower mental capacity we were told the call them retarded, that evolved to special needs, then to disabled to as you now describe as person with disabilities or even as challenged. I think everyone is more concerned about the context in which the word is used, rather than to be so concerned with the word itself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8504811174838510506.post-915765285528599782011-08-18T08:09:05.631-04:002011-08-18T08:09:05.631-04:00Around twenty years ago I was being drilled by voc...Around twenty years ago I was being drilled by vocal memebers of the disability movement to refer to 'disabled people'. Wishing to oblige (and to avoid trouble), I did.<br /><br />Then I went to New York where a most right-on lady took terible umbrage at my use of the Britsh-English term, lecturing me earnestly along the lines that you mention, the substance of what we were talking about being brushed aside.<br /><br />As far as I was concerned, with considerable failure to understand that there are other worlds than her own, she was dealing with matters of linguistic usage (and not very well at that). Oh well, that is anybody's priveledge and its exercise is one of the mechanisms for the evolution of language.<br /><br />It matters more when the words used actually have the potential to relate to material social reality, in which case misuse may actually confuse and mislead.<br /><br />I shall continue to try to resist that.Conductive Worldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02196065294994059306noreply@blogger.com