Effective Interaction: Communicating With and About People with Disabilities in the Workplace
Following are examples of appropriate and inappropriate phrases to describe persons with disabilities.
|
Positive Phrases |
Negative Phrases |
|
Person with an intellectual, cognitive, developmental disability |
The retarded; mentally retarded |
|
Person who is blind or visually impaired |
The blind |
|
Person with a disability |
The disabled; handicapped |
|
Person who is deaf or hard of hearing |
The deaf; deaf and dumb |
|
Person with multiple sclerosis |
Someone afflicted by MS |
|
Person with cerebral palsy |
A CP victim |
|
Person with epilepsy or a seizure disorder |
An epileptic; person with fits |
|
Person who has muscular dystrophy |
Someone stricken by MD |
|
Person who uses a wheelchair; wheelchair user |
Person confined, bound or restricted to a wheelchair |
|
Person who is unable to speak, person who uses synthetic speech |
A mute |
|
Person with a psychiatric disability |
A crazy person |
|
Person with a physical disability, person who is physically disabled |
Person who is crippled, lame or deformed |
|
Person who is successful, productive |
Person who has overcome his/her disability; person who is courageous |
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