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NOT "DIFFERENTLY ABLED" PLEASE
Mary Irving (IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM)
Sun, 1 Oct 1995 22:31:06 -0400
Tibor Benk used that silly, condescending euphemism --differently
abled-- that always makes my skin crawl and my hair stand on end.
I am blind and I use the word blind and it's a perfectly good word.
Just as deaf is also a good word. Remember the student strike at
Gallaudet University in 1989 I think it was. The students called
for a "deaf president" not a physically challenged president, or a
differently abled president, but for a deaf president. The word is
not such a bad word either. The Americans With Disabilities Act
(ADA) is called just that, not the Differently Abled Americans Act
(DAAA) or the Physically Challenged Americans Act (PCAA). See the
problem is not in the name but in the attitude toward people who
happen to be blind or deaf or disabled in some other way. How many
colleges and universities have a blind faculty member? How many
anthropology departments have ever helped a blind student get an
internship? I am not singling out Tibor Benk; It just happened
that his post caught my attention. Mary
Irving<IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM>
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