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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
It’s Time To Stop Even Casually Misusing Disability Words
Andrew Pulrang
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Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Exploring disability practices, policy, politics, and culture.
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Feb 20, 2021,01:27pm EST|
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Words Have Power
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Content warning: This article mentions and discusses offensive words related to people with disabilities.
It’s not “oversensitive,” or too “new” of a concern for organizations and businesses to take a hard look at reforming ableist language. Ableism itself is not a new phenomenon, even if “ableism” is a new word to some of us. And avoiding offensive language throughout organizations isn’t just about preventing bad publicity. Curbing use of stigmatizing and problematic language makes workplaces safer for diversity, more productive for employees, and friendlier to customers and clients.
This should certainly include identifying and ending use of universally offensive disability slurs, like the word “retarded.” Few would seriously argue that it is okay for any organization to tolerate either intentionally insulting or casual use of this word, now widely referred to as “The R Word.” But the effort to reduce ableist [...]
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