We prefer to be call Universal Intelligence (Page 3)

sherryeee: with disabilities disagree, and find some of the language used to describe their disabilities to be highly offensive.

sherryeee:
/David-Stewart-8>, Teacher from Melbourne Australia.

sherryeee: Upvoted by <Matt-Hastie>, Father of two. David-Stewart-8> has 340+ answers </David-Stewart-8/answers/Parenting> in </Parenting

sherryeee: In addition to the excellent response posted by Matt Hastie </Matt-Hastie> I would add the comment that there is often no correct answer.

sherryeee: I teach in a school for students with physical and multiple disabilities and a lot of people ask me

sherryeee: What should I call people who are... you know..." (frequently the can't even finish the sentence)

sherryeee: I just want to know what they want to be called"

sherryeee: There seems to be an underlying assumption that people with disabilities have regular Annual

sherryeee: General Meetings where they decide which terms are appropriate this week. People with

sherryeee: disabilities range from people who were disabled from birth (Cerebral Palsy etc) people with degenerative

sherryeee: conditions (Muscular dystrophy etc) and people who have acquired a disability through an injury of some kind. They all have a range of experiences and a range of different

sherryeee: values, ideals and beliefs. Consequently they want to be called different things. Some like to

sherryeee: claim derogatory terms like "retarded" in the same way the gay community claimed "queer" and

sherryeee: take the sting out of an insult by wearing the name with pride. Other's think this is a terrible idea.

sherryeee: English comedian Francesca Martinez has CP but hates the term and describes herself as

sherryeee: Wobbly" it's a beautiful term that she's adopted for herself but clearly not for everyone.

sherryeee: I've told people this and it's annoyed them because the find it inconvenient and confusing which I

sherryeee: have to say doesn't elicit any degree of sympathy at all from me. If this confusion causes people

sherryeee: to ignore the disability and instead focus on the person then that's the best result as far as I'm

sherryeee: concerned.

sherryeee: Antone Johnson , eHarmony executive from 2006-09; MySpace before that

sherryeee: "Developmentally disabled." Some prefer "developmentally challenged" but I think that goes

sherryeee: goes too far down the curve between intellectual honesty and political correctness. (Similarly with

sherryeee: learning diffferences" for kids rather than "learning disabilities."

sherryeee: I think you're right that ADHD or dyslexia is a "learning disability" but not a "developmental