Re: Political Correctness and the Writer

[Michelle Law <shell -at- CS -dot- UTK -dot- EDU>]

> There was a time when the term was "crippled". When that became
> unexceptable, the term "handicapped" was invented and no one seemed to
> mind. Now that is not appropriate, so it's moved on to "disabled". It
> won't last, folks. After the new term becomes commonplace, someone
> will start to have a problem with it and a new term will have to be
> devised.
>
Well, some people call it "differently abled" now.

> Oh, well. You can't please all of the people all of the time . . . .

This will always be true. Actually, some people who have these labels
applied to them really don't care about the terminology. Any of the
words you used in the first paragraph would be okay. My brother, who
has a spinal cord injury, calls it like he sees it. He says he's
crippled (and proud of it!). Take away the negative connotations,
not the words. There's nothing wrong with being crippled, mentally
retarded, handicapped, or disabled. Now if we can just get the rest
of the human race to evolve..... ;)

Michelle Law

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html