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Hi Thankyou for responding to the point. However I would still like to hear more from you as I am a person with disability and I found that no matter how I was referred, itwas ultimately the person's understanding the issue that decided the stance taken by him/her Regards Anita ---------- | From: M.G.Peckitt <[log in to unmask]> | To: [log in to unmask] | Subject: Language, Political Correctness and Disability | Date: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 8:18 PM | | To all | | This posting is a reply of some sort to Anita's posting | about politically correct langauge and attitude change. | As someone very interested in language and disability I | always treat a new "PC" word about disability with | suspicion This is because some of the time the word seems | to me (and perhaps to me alone) to make those who do not | have a disabily feel more comfortable. This is in some | ways positive, if people feel more comfortable then the | conditions for people of all abilities to interact are | created. | | However, I get very angry when I'm told by the latest | survey not only what term is preferred but what you MUST | call people with disabilities. I am very weary of the | effect of collectives on the individual. Even if such and | such a word is better what moral right do they have to | impose a defining word on anyone. When I was Equal | opportunities officier at my college I was given a list by | a member of staff which I had to tell the rest of the | college at a committee to call disabled people. | | This list eliminated disabled, disability as PC terms | allowing only Person/s With A Disability left. While this | MAY be an approvment , personally saying " I have a | disability or I am disabled" is fine to me, but I do not | impose these titles on any other person with disability, | make them speak my language. | | As to whether it changes attitudes, I if ind is down to a | kind of psychology. If the word replacing is different from | the word being replaced then people notice a difference. | By different I mean phonetically and semantically e.g | Handicapped to disablility is a big difference but Persons | with Disability, while it does separate the person from the | condition is not so noticeable. | | | ---------------------- | M.G.Peckitt | [log in to unmask] | %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%