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Originally Posted by ownedbycats
"People of diverse abilities" used as an euphemism for disability...isn't that basically everyone?
Also, why are people so afraid of the word "disabled"?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Becasuse "disabled" means "can't do anything".
My vision is poor. Some things are harder for me to do such as finding specific locations in very large places (like the right platform in a massive train station), and there are some things I can't do/aren't allowed to do, such as drive a car.
But I'm certainly not disabled. I've always refused to describe myself as disabled. If I had been blind, I probably would have, because then there's a MASSIVE amount of things I wouldn't be able to do without some form of assistance.
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I volunteered for many years at a therapeutic riding center -- Somerset Hills Handicapped Riding Center. Several years ago they changed their name to remove the reference to "handicapped" and they have always discouraged the use of the term "disabled".
The term "disabled" carries a lot of baggage but isn't really descriptive. I worked with kids and adults with conditions that ranged from autism to cerebral palsy to Down's syndrome, to paralysis, to seizure disorders. And even among clients with a shared diagnosis individual abilities varied widely. Using a blanket term to describe them wasn't helpful and gave strangers a preconceived idea as to what individual strengths and needs they might have.