November 8, 2009
UCP AffNet Entrance [password required]
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Vocabulary Tips
Positive Language Empowers
Affirmative Phrases |
Negative Phrases |
| Person with mental retardation | Retarded, mentally defective |
| Person who is blind, person who is visually impaired | The blind |
| Person with a disability | The disabled, handicapped |
| Person who is deaf, person who is hard of hearing | Suffers a hearing loss, the deaf |
| Person who has multiple sclerosis | Afflicted by MS |
| Person with cerebral palsy | CP victim |
| Person with epilepsy, person with seizure disorder | Epileptic |
| Person who uses a wheelchair | Confined or restricted to a wheelchair |
| Person who has muscular dystrophy | Stricken by MD |
| Physically disabled | Crippled, lame, deformed |
| Person without a disability | Normal person (implies that the person with a disability isn't normal) |
| Unable to speak, uses synthetic speech | Dumb, mute |
| Seizure | Fit |
| Successful, productive | Has overcome his/her disability; courageous (when it implies the person has courage because of having a disability) |
| Person with psychiatric disability | Crazy, nuts |
| Person who no longer lives in an institution | The deinstitutionalized |
| Says she/he has a disability | Admits she/he has a disability |
Source: The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities