Disabled or handicapped or ??? Which terms should be used?

[peach]

Disabled is a safe term.. my son is hearing impaired (and therefor disabled).

i say hearing impaired. he says deaf.

I don't say deaf..

 

[Francis Vineyard]

Peach, do you wash his hands when he swears?

Francis

 

[Francis Vineyard]

I think Mark's post of the ADA Federal guidelines asked if it was accurate but then the topic change about being politically correct as expected. The problem is you cannot satisfy everyone, so we compromise. Take the required International Symbol of Accessibility; hopefully we won't get the point of a symbol for every type of disability.

I find it best to say the truth in facts. A person that use crutches, walkers, strollers, wheelchairs, hearing aids, signages, canes, etc..

When I go out to do inspections the person I'm meeting with walks in front of me and I sense he's talking; I stop and announce I'm a lip reader; "Oh, okay" then proceeds to talk while walking in front of me! Who's impaired? If you call my office the recording says to email or call the front desk. An architect comes in to suggest I get CapTel as his wife does; who's disabled?

At the end of the day, people would rather have two legs, arms, eyes, ears, brain functions, etc., that functions 100%. How we encourage and accommodate matters more than words. Personally when it comes to telling it like it is; I think kids to a better job before they are brainwashed to being subjects.

Now off my soap box to wash my hands in case I offended someone with another observation;

A while back I sat in the reception area of my doctor’s office, a woman rolled an elderly man in a wheelchair into the room. As she went to the receptionist’s desk, the man sat there, alone and silent. Just as I was thinking I should make small talk with him, a little boy slipped off his mother’s lap and walked over to the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the man’s, he said, “I know how you feel. My Mom makes me ride in the stroller too.”

Francis