The Language We Use to Talk About Disabilities

Crippled. Lame. Retarded. Infirm. Sickly. Handicapped. Disabled. Wounded Healer. Special. In many languages and in many eras there have been words and expressions used to describe people who differ in some way from the majority of their peers.

In certain eras, very little thought has been given to the implications of these labels, but there has been a growing academic and therapeutic emphasis on the language we use to describe disability since about the 1970s. Concern on the part of family members and advocates of people with disabilities (including the disabled people themselves) and on the part of society in general, has followed.

This is the first part of a discussion about the language and labels we use, and the changing trends that impact the words we are told we can or cannot use.

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Photo: Meghan Anderson-Colangelo (sxc.hu)