As roles change, so do labels for people with disabilities

NORFOLK

In the 41 years he's used a wheelchair, Stephen Johnson has worried more about basic necessities like sidewalk ramps than the words used to refer to his disability.

In recent years, those labels have taken on more prominence as people with disabilities seek equal treatment and regard in the eyes of wider society.

Changes in language can alter the way people think, Johnson and other advocates say.

"People with disabilities have been treated as less than people, herded into institutions," said Johnson, director of the Endependence Center, an advocacy and education organization in Norfolk.

Today, he said, those with disabilities "are seeing themselves as people who don't want to be treated differently. They want to be taxpaying members of society."

That's why it is no longer considered proper to call someone "mentally retarded," although this is a clinical term and appears in some federal laws. In Virginia, the legislature officially adopted the term "intellectually disabled" this year.

"People with disabilities," advocates say, is preferable to "disabled people" because the person comes first. Instead of setting aside "handicapped parking" for the "wheelchair-bound," they say, try providing "accessible parking" for "people who use wheelchairs."

The change of attitude over time can be traced through the names of a Washington, D.C., group that sets classification standards for cognitive disabilities.

When founded in 1876, it was called the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded Persons. Thirty years later, the term "Idiotic" was dropped and the group was renamed the American Association for the Study of the Feebleminded. Another leap in sensitivity came in 1933, with the switch to the American Association on Mental Deficiency. In 1987 the group became the American Association on Mental Retardation. On Jan. 1 last year, the name changed again, to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

" 'Retarded' is the ultimate pejorative," said Steven Eidelman, president of the group. "We just want to say it's plain wrong."

While the new name doesn't get rid of the stigma, it's a first step in changing the image, he said.

Locally, Hope House Foundation has embarked on a major campaign to expand the way people think about those with developmental disabilities.

Billboards, print ads and buttons with images from the "Masterpiece" campaign dot South Hampton Roads. They depict area adults with disabilities as people with interests and talents.

The ads send the message that "folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities have the right to live ordinary and meaningful lives in their own homes and communities," said Julie Ambrosio, donor relations director.

At St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children in Norfolk, the residents, who have severe physical impairments, can't say what they want to be called. However, the staff is working to change the way they identify the children.

"Disability doesn't 100 percent define them as a person," said Robin Geluso, a child advocate at St. Mary's. "If you say the disability first, you think of that first."

In a few decades, the new names and phrasing may again be seen as outdated or offensive. But Eidelman hopes not." You call people a name when they're 'other,' " he said. And increasingly, people with disabilities are no longer seen as 'other.'

"When they're going to our schools and living among us, they're a lot more like us," Eidelman said. "It's not good or bad. It just is."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com.