38 replies to this topic

[Lucydog]

The nature of my job means that generally I deal with a lot of ABs who are trying to do things for disabled people in terms of implementing the DDA.

Anyway I find people often use the term 'wheekchair bound' when talking about some issue or other, to me. I admit Im not keen on this term as I loll around on the sofa as well as anyone and dont consider myself 'bound' anywhere.

So I thought I'd canvas opinion a bit.

Should I correct people when its used or let it pass? Whats your personal preferences, and whats the worst descriptions youve come accross in your own experience?

Im not too hung up on p.c myself but I do tend to go with wheelchair user as my preferred term.

cheers
Luce

[Apparelyzed]

I don't mind "Wheelchair Bound", but I prefer "Disabled".

The one's I don't like are:

Crippled
Handicapped
Physically Challenged

I guess "Wheelchair Dependent" or "Wheelchair Independent" might be a better description, you need the word "Wheelchair" in the title somewhere, as it gives a better idea of access requirements.

Simon.

[kanga2433]

Well, I suppose 'a spade is a digging implement' and so you guess I am not fussed about terminology. However, if pushed i would have said:

1. I am not wheelcahir bound, I am wheelchair released, released from a fixed chair or bed to enjoy the world outside!

2. Popular in the States is wheelcahir rider which sounds good.

3. Terms to avoid; the disabled! We are, after all, people first and anything a distant third.


Sorry I can't spell wheelchair; perhaps if I get an RGK that would do, like Hoover for a vacuum cleaner!

[In The Wind]

I’d suggest that you just switch to your preferred term when you respond. Most folks will pick up the correction and use it,

Wheelchair bound doesn’t bother me but the last guy that called me disabled ended up lying in the grass on his back. He doesn’t use the term anymore.

I guess it’s the same thing as opening doors..bothers some, doesn’t bother others.

Edited to add;
Most people are just trying to empathize with us. They look at the wheelchair as an impediment, that’s why they are so easy to disarm. Simple vocabulary and the chair vanishes;

Edited by In The Wind, 20 May 2006 - 04:39 PM.

[mttb14]

Hi Luce,

Hope your headaches (migraines are sorted).

I don't think its the word they use, it is how they say it.

A psychiatrist who John had to see as part of his compensation claim really annoyed us because he said, "John is often embarressed by his spasticity problems causing him to have an awkward gait, and as he appears to be physically fit, people do not realise he suffering and as disabled as he is. Once he has a wheelchair it might have the effect of reducing his embarressment as he would then be obviously disabled!"

I thought we were in 2006 and that doctors should know better, but this accident claim is definately showing us that doctors actually are some of the worst culprits for not really understanding a situation. They might have the book knowledge, but their bedside manners leave a lot to be desired.

We regularly get annoyed with them arguing amongst themselves, all making money out of other peoples suffering.

Maria

Edited by mttb14, 20 May 2006 - 05:15 PM.

[russ1]

I too am not too keen on 'wheelchair bound' or it's evil cousin 'confined to a wheelchair'. I try to gently correct people into using the term 'wheelchair user', that's certainly how I describe myself. I'd say that as an access officier it's part of your job to help people relate better to their coustomers and if they do use a term like that you should be correcting them. Your best bet might be to say something like 'let me just pick up on that, personally I'm not too concerned but there's a fair few wheelchair users who can or will take exception to being refferred to as wheelchair bound and you might be safer saying wheelchair user'. Wheelchair dependent would be equally acceptable.

Only my very close friends refer to me as a cripple (they're allowed to as long as I know that they know I'm anything but!) and no but no one who knows what's good for them will call me handicapped. Disabled I can take or leave

[sjean423]

WheelchAIR user sounds good to me too.

[dom]

hi Luce, and all
I think it may be a post pc time now and a fair few gaffes have been made trying to change the English language terms to be less demeaning
I read 'disability now' hacked off publication on political correctness of diability terms like'wheelchair user' instead of offensive terms i think in the main they are good
Even the word 'disabled can have negative connotations , the 'dis' being negative and able positive .able to do what? sleep, eat walk,etc the list is endless
i also like the social model argument whereby society is geared toward 'able' people,roads ,buildings transport etc but i suppose disability is relative and these decisions have to be decided like a court case and the 'reasonableness' subjective argument has to come into play
this is a debate that could go on for years[and has]

[Gary Anderson]

Call me anything you like and in the past 17 years since my accident people have!
Just remember this which I read somewhere - "it's not WHO pushes you but WHAT pushes you" and "life is about by ability not disability."

[wriggley]

i was talking this one over with the other half not that long ago and i'm along the same lines as Russ.

Anyone who calls me or uses the term handicapped in earshot is going to be missing a couple of teeth or achilles tendons! Disabled doesn't bother me to be honest but its not my most preferable term. I'd go for wheelchair user as wheelchair bound i know it doesn't descibe me and i bet it doesn't cover you lot either.

Oh just on that term theres a very good t-shirt on www.thenthdegree.com which is very funny

Wriggley:)

[xMaddiex]

i just asked jason this, and he said hes not bothered what people call him as long as its not anything made to be offensive like 'spaz' or something. the only other one he doesnt like is 'handicapped' because it means 'cap in hand' i.e. beggar. yesterday, one of jasons neighbors said he had 'differently-abled-ness issues'. this just made us laugh.

[Para-pal]

I always say that my friend is "otherwise abled"

[xMaddiex]

there was this girl at school today who was trying to be all smart and obnoxious and said jason was 'selectively abled' which really wound me up, not because of what she said but because she said it like jason chooses not to be able to walk etc. etc. i got really angry at her but jason just laughed...i suppose one of us has to be really light-hearted.

[Avocado Baby]

I prefer to be referred to as a wheelchair user or disabled. Not so keen on handicapped and I CANNOT STAND the word invalid or being referred to as 'a wheelchair'

I think being PC can go too far though. My uni changed the spellng of disabled to dysabled, which just draws attention to it!

[Jilly]

I dont have a sci myself but my boyfriend does....personally I cant stand the word handicapped - makes you sound like you are retarded or something!! My bf doesnt mind being called disabled too much - but he usually refers to himself as 'in a wheelchair'

dysabled???? silly people!!

[Joed]

Para-pal, on May 22 2006, 08:15 PM, said:

I always say that my friend is "otherwise abled"

I love that one.

I cringe everytime I hear "wheelchair bound"....it certainly doesn't invoke the same imagery/feeling as "homeward bound", does it?

For many years the Shriner's hospitals had huge signs saying, "Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children". Even at a young age, I could sense the negative connotations that the word 'crippled' carried with it. So when I got older, I wrote them a letter asking them to please consider using another term, to which they replied, "By definition, crippled children are who we serve in our hospitals" and they had no intentions of changing it. However, a few years later, I discovered that they had changed the sign to something less offensive. Change is slow sometimes.

Like russ....I allow a few close people to call me 'crippled', not as a normal course of speaking, but usually in a humorous way. It's a running joke in my family to call me "Daddy's little crippled girl". But the Saints be with anyone who uses the term and doesn't know me well enough!

I don't know, I guess I'm different in that the term handicapped doesn't bother me that much. I guess because in my lifetime of disability the term 'handicapped' replaced the more hated term 'crippled', and I've always seen that as an improvement. Although I've never heard the translation that xMaddiex gave, it's causing me to re-think the whole thing.

I had a professor in college, who had bi-lateral amputations, who used the term 'mis-abled', but to me, it's just another way of saying 'unable', and I don't believe that honors any of us or reflects our realities. If anything, most of us are the epitomes of ability.

I think that we should gently correct those who use terminology that offends. I see it as a courtesy to them...I know that I would be appreciative if the situation were reversed.

Now, back to my wheelchair so that I can be bound into it. Get the ropes, honey!

[lune14]

Gosh can you tell I'm newer to the forums as my posts are all a month or more behind everyone else's?? LOL

I don't mind disabled and often use the term when having to make it known to someone on the phone etc. Handicapped I don't use cuz.... well it's too long and I can't be bothered with so many letters. As someone else mentioned I often state "I'm in a wheelchair". Overall I'd have to say I use the "i'm in a chair" thing when I'm trying to make it very clear (ie.: making reservations for travel/venues getting an accessbility issue clarified, etc) I've had people refer to me as handicapped and if a choice I'd prefer they stuck with disabled. I guess it all just doesn't have a lot of weight with me until I'm trying to make accomodations for access. I like to think also that people who use seemingly insulting terminology towards us are also the same folks who tend to say things like "I seen 'im" ... rather than "I saw him" ;-) So I don't take offense but try to offer a more up-to-date terminology for their limited vocabularies.

I once dated a guy who, a few weeks into our romance, made a blushing confession to me. He said when he was younger he and his buddy used to refer to wheelchair users as "Circle-butt People". They were inspired by the wheelchair symbol. We had a good laugh and I use that one all the time now.

[Katja]

Joed, on May 27 2006, 11:42 AM, said:

Like russ....I allow a few close people to call me 'crippled', not as a normal course of speaking, but usually in a humorous way. It's a running joke in my family to call me "Daddy's little crippled girl".

My kids call me the PCM (Poor Crippled Mom). We don't tell The Others what it means, though.

Edited by Katja, 20 June 2006 - 05:29 AM.

[LadyPilot]

I hate labels of any sort. I guess the only one I'm personally comfortable with is wheelchair user. All the others are so negative. Disabled and handicapped are the two I hate most of all

[Dancingdolphin]

I don't mind disabled now I know it stands for Do It Sitting Abled..(seen on another website

[PoppaWheelie]

It's all good to me. Just don't call me cripple or a gimp and I'm good. I suppose if it was some annoying person who was way too PC I would be irritated, but then I'm not one to stay quiet either so she they would learn quickly. Wheelchair bound is alright with me because it pretty much true. I'm not the type of dude to crawl all over the place so I really am kind of bound to it. If it's true and your not using it in a hateful way I have no quams.

[lil_feisty]

This was one of those things I was worried about when Paraguy and I started dating... Do I say, "wheelchair bound, disabled, handicapped (i stayed away from that one!), wheelchair assisted, wheelchair user, etc?"

I didnt want to say something offensive and make an ass out of myself, but from what I have learned is that what is offensive depends on whom you are talking to, which, as you can imagine, makes the average AB person afraid to open his or her mouth.

I think as people --"without wheels" or "with wheels" (LOL.. still searching for a term), we can tell whether or not someone is trying to be offensive or just stumbling through a VERY awkward moment.

If it is someone -- a drunk, an obnoxious idiot, etc-- then by all means feel free to let 'em have it and don't hold anything back!

BUT--- if it's just some awkward schmuck, stumbling to try and find the right thing to say without offending anyone or making an ass out of himself, have pity on him/her for Pete's sake! I think an understanding smile and a shared laugh over terminology goes a lot farther to bridge gaps and increase understanding than eye-rolling, suffering sighs, and offensiveness...

BTW... I think I said over the phone to a friend, while he was in earshot and I was trying to dodge the whole wheelchair reference altogether, "He's got two wheels instead of two legs..." ROFL... I botched that one pretty badly!!.....a true blonde...

[Ali-Cat22]

I don't know about the rest of you and I can't really say this coming from your point of view, but Just like any other label, I don't like them. I prefer to be called by my name. My boyfriend Joe has a SCI and I hate it when people call him anything but Joe. He is not the guy in the wheelchair, handicapped, or anything else. It might just be me but I don't see him any different than the average person. He is My Joey and I love him and Just because he is in a wheelchair doesnt mean he different. how about the term Amazing, or wonderful, or incredible. I like those better.

[lune14]

Al-Cat,


I've tried your idea but somehow when I introduce myself "HI I'm amazingly wonderful!" people seem to become afraid of me. HAHA just kidding.

I appreciate your opinions and they put a smile on my face!! What a beautiful way to think!

[twisted_ophelia]

I think "wheelchair bound" is kind of offensive and I don't like it. I don't like handicapped either. I think "wheelchair user" is probably the best way to put it. You can tell right away when someone who is AB is struggling to come up with the right words and feels awkward. Generally, I don't like to be identified only by my disability though, I like when people just use my first name as some others mentioned as well.

[milosh]

like diana and jilly's boyfriend, i prefer ''in a wheelchair''. invalid and crippled truly irritate me. for others i don't give a shit.

[4estGimp]

Para-pal, on May 22 2006, 03:15 PM, said:

I always say that my friend is "otherwise abled"

ick... ** flesh crawls ** I hate PC terms for a disability.

Disabled is fine.
Handicapped... eh.. not wonderful but still ok
Wheelchair bound/user/rider .... Bound is not preferred, the other 2 are ok.
"in a wheelchair" is a great fit.

"Differently Abled" makes me turn green.

"Handicapable" makes me vomit in my mouth just a bit.

My friend Lisa just calls me short.

Edited by 4estGimp, 09 July 2006 - 03:33 AM.

[lune14]

4estGimp,

HAHA I'm gonna start using short! I am after all only 5'4 (Although secretly I have this sick enjoyment of "Circle Butt People" but shhhhh)

[milosh]

oh... yeah... if we pretend to use politically correct bullshit, it will make damage mostly to ourselves.

there is an old serbian saying ''call me a pot, but don't crack me''. ;)

[Jilly]

I agree Milosh.....
Yesterday I met a woman who knew my guy but not me...She introduced herself and asked if my 'husband' was at the sports club where we were.... I told her yes he was and told her who he was....she didnt have a clue who I was talking about until I said....'the guy in the wheelchair'...the penny dropped then and she got all gushy about how wonderful he is.