'handicaps'

[tegdirb]

i'm taking this online class where one of the students referred to us as 'handicaps'. her post really rubbed me the wrong way...ive never heard anyone refer to people with disabilities as 'handicaps' especially coming from an abled bodied individual. i don't care if one of you guys called me a crip or gimp, but when an AB says somethings like we're not human, i just get offended. i've tried very hard not to let my disability define who i am. and this is even a philosophy class where someone should at least think before they label. maybe i am overreacting, what do you guys think?

Live simply, so others may simply live ~Gandhi~

[marco25]

Well, Bridget, as an AB, all I can say is this person is an ignorant moron. What's scary is that she may actually think she's being sensitive or politically correct with that term. [img]/forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

If she not, then she's an pathetically insensitive, ignorant moron.

[woman from Europe]

Here everybody calls the people with disability for "handicaps". The most frustrating thing is when I read about the weak people in society, they meantion the alcoholics, the unemployed,the drugaddicts and the handicaps. They say it in the tv and in the newspaper all the time.

I do not think you are overreacting. I do not like to be called handicaped at all and especially I do not like to be put in the same group like the alcoholics and the drugattics.

TH 12 incomplete 12-12-69.

[dogger]

Bridget , this doesn't help you , but when i hear things like this i am reminded of something i read about Winston Churchill .
at a social gathering one night a lady exclaimed to Churchill , ''you are drunk !'' , to which he replied '' and you Madam are ugly . in the morning i will no longer be drunk . '' unfortunately in an online situation you have no idea of the physique of this person , but i'm sure if you started to use words like ''fats'' to describe the people who are obese there would be immediate outrage .
thank you ,
dogger

every day i wake up is a good one .

[Sue Pendleton]

"handicaps"? Like they used the word as a noun and not as an adjective? I'd be hitting that old "enter" button in scroll fashion until you could get that particular useage banned in your class.

WFE, I hear you. But over here in the US it's when the media icludes women with other minorities. Sorry folks but according to all the census results I've ever seen women are in the majority here.

During our second year of dealing with the Maryland House of Delegates the group we had assembled for the hearing on funding SCI research at the state level were referred to by the chairman of the committee as in "ok, the wheelchair people are next". I have to admit I wondered if we had suddenly shown up in our spaceship from Adromeda 3 or something. I mean "wheelchair people"?

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

[Nancie]

Originally posted by woman from Europe:

Here everybody calls the people with disability for "handicaps". The most frustrating thing is when I read about the weak people in society, they meantion the alcoholics, the unemployed,the drugaddicts and the handicaps. They say it in the tv and in the newspaper all the time.

I do not think you are overreacting. I do not like to be called handicaped at all and especially I do not like to be put in the same group like the alcoholics and the drugattics.

TH 12 incomplete 12-12-69.

they do that here too, only usually it's "the elderly, the sick, the disabled".
i'm surprised senior citizen advocacy groups don't object.....altho they might and it's just not publicized.
i don't like being labled either, altho i don't think the person in your class meant any disrespect.
it's ignorance, being un-educated.
i think you should point it out....it could make for a lively, interesting philosophy class that day. [img]/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[darthe]

Let's get rid of invalid also. Read in valid. NOT SO.
Darthe

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord. Plutarch

[jimnms]

Wether this person did it out of ignorance or on purpose, I think you need to teach this person a lesson. Maybe you should give us this person's email address. [img]/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

_____
Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

[Shaun]

Will ive been a handiboy and a handiman but ive never been a handicap.He's that beer drinkin cartoon guy with the funny hat right..right.. [img]/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

''Shoot the protester ya cant stop the protest.Murder the rebel ya cant stop the rebellion''..

[SCI-Nurse]

As much as I hate that term, I think I can better it. The following is unfortunately true.

I was at a major SCI nursing conference, viewing the scientific posters. One poster (from a person and institution that shall be mercifully un-named) was presenting a project done on a major SCI inpatient rehabilitation unit. The nurse-presenter REPEATEDLY referred to the inpatients on that our as "our cords"!!!!!! I was astonished (and deeply ashamed for her). I had this vision of a ward with nothing but little smashed spinal cords laying on the pillows!!

(KLD)

[tegdirb]

you have all given me something to laugh about [img]/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

KLD
on a serious note, i find it extremely unfortunate that the medical community is actually part or even the root of the problem concerning ignorance on this subject.

when i was first wheeled into rehab here in arizona, the nurses kept calling me a quad, they kept saying things like "she's a quad" with me in the room like i wasn't even there or even a human being for that matter. it seemed that when i broke my neck, all of a sudden, i turned into another species.

they should really say 'person WITH quadriplegia, tetraplegia, paraplegia, etc.' would you call a person suffering from cancer a 'cancer' or a person with down syndrome a retard. my cousin has down syndrome and she would definately have something to say if someone called her a retard to her face. a person with a handicap or disability is still a human being for goodness sake no matter what is medically wrong with them.

my point here is, is that education needs to start with the medical community. if not, we can't expect the general public to be sensitive when people who should know better label us and act as if we are 'just quads or paras'. therefore, ignorance is not an excuse for the medical community. i could understand you being ashamed for this institution and i hope you spoke up and said something to them. they should feel embarrassed.

terms like quads, crips, gimps, handicaps, are not WHO we are. quadriplegia is something we have medically, it shouldn't define who we are as people and individuals. i know some people may be reading this and thinking, 'geez, they're just words', but words are powerful and used incorrectly can cause serious damage.

like i said, i don't mind if a fellow sci buddy calls me a quad or crip, but you have to be a member of the club [img]/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif[/img].

Some might tell you there's no hope in hell just because they feel hopeless, but you don't have to be anything like that...~Dave Mathews~

[chick]

Bridget, I don't know what topics/area you guys are covering in your class now, but the issue of how people are defined- by others and themselves, might be something you can incorporate into your discussions. If not a specific issue related to course, why not bring it up as a subject for discussion? This is a philosophy class so I think it is very appropriate and you can use how this other student used the term 'handicaps" as starting point. Just a thought. [img]/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

How's the class going otherwise?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you have blacks, too?" ~G.W. Bush to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001"

[Christopher Paddon]

Bridget

"it seemed that when i broke my neck, all of a sudden, i turned into another species."

I know exactly what you mean - I realised I had become part of a different (inferior) species even before I left rehab. When you get into the outside world again it's even worse.

I don't think finding different names for us will change people's thinking

[tegdirb]

chick,
the class is actually called 'person, identity, and dignity' and the first week we discussed and answered the question 'who am i?'. i had briefly mentioned i had a disabilty, but i don't consider that defining who i am, blah, blah, blah, but this person must have not read my post or forgot.

other than this, i am enjoying the class...i've actually decided to minor in philosophy since it might help me figure out more things about myself and others around me. i would have been finished with my BA this fall, but one of the classes i need is not being offered and i need to have 12 credits a semester to receive my GI bill/army college fund from the army.

it's just a tad annoying when a class that people are actually supposed to be thinking in, who have actually had a chance to think about what they are posting still should end up putting their foot in their mouth. i'm sure if this was in a traditional classroom this person would have thought twice before blurting something like that out with me in the room. makes me wonder how many classes i've sat through where someone probably thought twice.

i guess this person didn't expect any 'handicaps' to be in this class or even be able to think. well, i will stop making assumptions about this poster or i will seem just as ignorant as her. i will be taking her comment as an opportunity to educate her and the class about disabilities. thanks for the suggestion.

Some might tell you there's no hope in hell just because they feel hopeless, but you don't have to be anything like that...~Dave Mathews~

[tegdirb]

hmmmm chris
i have to disagree, never considered myself inferior and never will, AB are definately physically better off than us, but there are some really dumb asses walking around that don't appreciate what they have. the way i look at it, that would make them inferior, but heck, like i said we're all human. we don't realize what we have til it's gone.

i just won't let anyone devalue my worth or make me feel like i'm less of a person because i'm sitting down. someone on here mentioned that we may not be able to stand up, but we can definately stand up for ourselves.

finding different names for us may or may not change thoughts. thoroughly educating people may help and will probably result in a cure one day (and i know you will be happy then [img]/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif[/img]). knowledge is power.

Some might tell you there's no hope in hell just because they feel hopeless, but you don't have to be anything like that...~Dave Mathews~