{"id":84,"date":"2010-03-19T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html"},"modified":"2010-03-19T11:23:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T11:23:00","slug":"finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new piece at her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog. Regular readers of this blog will recognize some of the ideas, although it does contain new material as well. It begins:<\/p>\n<p>The word <em>retarded<\/em> has made the news lately. The Special Olympics <a href=\"http:\/\/www.specialolympics.org\/spread-the-word-to-end-the-word.aspx\">designated<\/a> March 3rd as a day of awareness about the hurtful and inappropriate ways that word is used. Before that, Sarah Palin excoriated Rahm Emanuel, President Obama\u2019s Chief of Staff, after he <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748703808904575025030384695158.html\">used the word<\/a> to describe some of his fellow Democrats. Palin went on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/02\/07\/palin-considering-2012-ru_n_452602.html\">defend<\/a> Rush Limbaugh in his use of the word to also describe the Democrats, something that caused another round of blogposts and op-eds. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s great to draw attention to a hurtful word. But the problems within our culture go far deeper than the use of the word <em>retarded<\/em> as a slur. When it comes to talking about disability in general, even those of us who want to be sensitive, just, and kind often don\u2019t know what to say or how to say it.<\/p>\n<p>I write as the mother of a child with Down syndrome, yet I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I also struggle with language here. Do I call it &#8220;disability&#8221;? &#8220;Special needs&#8221;? &#8220;Developmental delays&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>The most telling example of my own loss for words came a few months ago. My daughter Penny and I went to a birthday party, and I met another mom. She said, &#8220;I have a child with special needs, too.&#8221; She pointed out the window. &#8220;My daughter is ten. She&#8217;s the one with the walker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To read more, click <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/2010\/03\/finding_the_right_words_for_di.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new piece at her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog. Regular readers of this blog will recognize some of the ideas, although it does contain new material as well. It begins: The word retarded has made the news lately. The Special Olympics designated March 3rd as a day of awareness about the hurtful and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a new piece at her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog. Regular readers of this blog will recognize some of the ideas, although it does contain new material as well. It begins: The word retarded has made the news lately. The Special Olympics designated March 3rd as a day of awareness about the hurtful and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-19T11:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability - Thin Places","og_description":"I have a new piece at her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog. 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The Special Olympics designated March 3rd as a day of awareness about the hurtful and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-03-19T11:23:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html","name":"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-19T11:23:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-19T11:23:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/03\/finding-the-right-words-to-talk-about-disability.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Finding the Right Words to Talk About Disability"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}