Hi everyone!
I'm happy to see the discussion about language surface again. Just the other
day, I learned that the paratransit system drivers in Washington, D.C. are
prohibited from using "blind" to describe their blind clients. They must say
"sight-impaired" or "totally sight-impaired" to describe a totally blind
person When I questioned one driver as to the reasoning behind this, he said
"some blind people may object to being called `blind' so we can't say that
word." How stigmatizing to have a perfectly legitimate desccripter be deemed
so shameful that it cannot be spoken out loud! I, for one, have never met a
blind person (including myself) who objects to being called "blind."
Best,
Beth
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