Zaffirini Bill Strikes "Retarded" from State Laws
Disability advocates want Texas lawmakers to put the term "retarded" in the "word graveyard" with other derogatory terms.
Advocates gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday to support SB 26, filed by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, which would require past and future state laws to replace terms like “crippled” and “mentally retarded” with phrases such as “persons with disabilities” or “persons with intellectual disabilities.”
“The term itself, when it was first started, was designed to be very professional and have a good connotation to it, but it digressed over the years, and it’s a term that is used to ...
Comments (1)
Kirk Holden
In my version of American English I am a “person(s) with intellectual disabilities" compared to Steven Hawking, Steve Jobs and Steven Pinker. And that is just the Steves I am diminished against. I am not a retarded person with an IQ below 70 ( today's definition of mentally retarded) or "dignified persons in the 5th quintile of IQ or WORDSUM" which is - to put a fine point on it - what the single, unvarnished word "retarded" means but uses fewer letters and words.