‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with disabilities it is

Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by jeherr on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @03:39PM (#31172186)

I definitely recognize this process (and have heard the term euphemism treadmill from McWhorter the other commenter pointed out) but since when has "disabled" been used as a slur? I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone using disabled in a derogatory manner like you would hear "retarded" commonly used now.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by chillacy on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @03:59PM (#31172415)

I get the sense that "disabled" is still in its avant-garde phase. "retarded" passed that in my circles maybe a few years ago, but also there was a time where it was much like "disabled" is today.

Aside, somehow "retarded" got replaced by "special needs" or "short bus" in some circles which also sounds insulting to me, so maybe we'll continue this treadmill for awhile longer.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by jfengel on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @05:53PM (#31173644)

"Short bus" was always a slur.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by paxprose on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @04:27PM (#31172735)

this button is disabled this button is retarded this button is special needs

I could go with the first two in a code review.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by krnlpnc on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @04:35PM (#31172830)

And then you could go explain that second one to HR.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by adamomada on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @05:22PM (#31173365)

It’s the French translation

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by tempnow987 on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @06:40PM (#31174061)

Where I am disabled is not in common use.

Differently abled is OK. Learning differences or special needs also works. Disabilities I think is still OK.

I'm kind of on board with getting away from retarded and disabled.

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Re:‘Disabled’ is not a bad word. Stop telling people with di... by matt-attack on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @07:49PM (#31174609)

I literally recall "differently abled" as being the punch line to a joke (Simpsons perhaps?). A character put his foot in his mouth, and tried to back-pedal and sort of ad-hoc formulated the phrase "differently abled" as a way to sound more PC and sensitive. It was quite literally supposed a joke at the time.

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