Why the Word "Handicapped" Should Be Eliminated From Our Vocabulary

[mark handler]

Well for starters, few people understand acessibility .

And that is why I continue to talk of education

 

[MASSDRIVER]

Well for starters, few people understand accessibility requirements..

Marks quote: "Well for starters, few people understand accessibility."

What a huge difference.

Actually, I would think the vast majority of people can understand accessibility. It's the "requirements" part that many have a hard time understanding. The education of accessibility could be relatively simple under normal conditions, but as with everything else regulatory, it undergoes an exponential rate of growth and complexity. There is no way to be thoroughly educated about it without devoting an inordinate amount of time to the subject, or paying someone to guide or educate you, which I think is the actual goal.

Brent.

 

[MASSDRIVER]

And you would have said "no" to people of color or who speak a different language too?ACLU is watching (smiling)

What are you telling them "no" to? What is your correlation? As I said, there is a difference in description and slur. And how does that have anything to do with people speaking different languages?

The HANDICAPPED are being described, not berated. There are some slurs, but I will not repeat them.

Brent.

 

[Msradell]

On Memorial Day I took my family up to the cemetery, I stopped in a shopping center to buy flowers, the front of the center was lined with handicap spaces with only one occupied, I had to park some distance away and we had to walk slowly with the wife and her walker (who wanted to come in with us) to the florist shop because I'm too proud to hang a handicap placard on my car.

Sounds like she should of been hitting you with the Walker for being too hardheaded to hang the placard!

 

[Fort]

Well for starters, few people understand accessibility requirements.I recently inspected a new store for a grocery chain. They were missing the obligatory wheelchair icon sign at the front doors.

They had never heard of those before which made me wonder if I was wrong.

Yep, you were wrong.

The ISA is no longer req'd at every entry door in all cases. See 11B-216.6. It is now only required if not all entrances are accessible. If the building has one door that is not accessible, then all doors would need signage, either with ISA, or if not accessible, with directional signage to nearest accessible entry. Since all doors on new construction are required to be accessible, we should not be requiring ISA signs on entry doors for new buildings. Of course remodels and additions will often continue to require them.

I would be grateful if someone reads 11B-216.6 differently to please let us know.

 

[tmurray]

Back to the original post:What about our First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of association? If we are going to limit those First Amendment rights we should limit the First Amendment right of freedom of religion as well. This whole civil rights thing is unconstitutional and was only allowed for a time as redress for past grievances suffered by those of African descent. We may get some constitutional direction on this, Obama has proposed a separate race-based legal system for native Hawaiians, if this does go through maybe the Supreme Court will address separate preferential rights for select groups.

On Memorial Day I took my family up to the cemetery, I stopped in a shopping center to buy flowers, the front of the center was lined with handicap spaces with only one occupied, I had to park some distance away and we had to walk slowly with the wife and her walker (who wanted to come in with us) to the florist shop because I'm too proud to hang a handicap placard on my car.

I don't think anyone is proposing to criminalize saying derogatory terms, just advising that many feel discriminated against when these terms are used. Ultimately changing my vocabulary costs nothing, so I am fine with it.

If the barrier free spaces had not been there others would have been parked there and you would have likely been walking the same distance. Similar situations where a family member has forced a mobility impaired person to walk long distances out of "principle" were convicted of abuse in Canada.

 

[ADAguy]

Use of derogatory terms has been around since the dawn of time but the scars often created can last forever.

Awarness of this and the terms that them is logical to some and illogical to others, then again we are all "wired" differently so the current flowing through our bodies and "minds" doesn't always make connections seen as acceptable by some and unacceptable by others.

Laws are made to establish controls of the majority but there will always be a minority who take offense to this perceived imposition of controls.

By our "free will" we will rise or perish, each of us individually and/or as a society.