(May 22, 2015 at 5:18 pm)c172 Wrote: Yeah, I grew up with "disabled" as well. "PWD" was a bit too PC when I first heard it, but now I'm actually used to it. Either is OK. "Cripple" or "gimp" is a definite no-no. But, we're all different. Each generation will have a new word for us.
My disability is spina bifida ("open spine" so to speak). Its wiki is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spina_bifida
I know someone who had polio as a child. (She got polio just a few months before the vaccine came out.) She hates "differently abled," which she regards as bullshit, as it does not give her a different ability. She is fine with being described as "crippled," because she is crippled and cannot walk properly. She requires crutches to walk, and is not up for much of that. "Gimp" is generally regarded as derogatory:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defini...ctCode=all
But I do not know how she feels about being called a "cripple;" I just know she is fine with being described as "crippled."
Whatever word one uses for it, it sucks not to be able to walk properly. My only experience with that (since infancy) is getting a sprained ankle once, and I did not care for not being able to get about very well. But I was pretty sure that it was a temporary condition, which makes it very different from the other cases being discussed in this thread.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
