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Politically correct term for mentally handicapped?
I believe I might have been using the wrong term in mentally handicapped. I'm applying for a position working with people with disabilities, and it occurred to me it might be important to get the right politically correct term. Anyone have an idea?
10 Answers
- MAGGIE MAELv 41 decade ago
Darlin, aren't you nice!!! I mean it. Most people would just go right on their merry little way and not give it another thought. I have a bum leg from an auto accident. Not noticeable with jeans on. However...other times is. It will always be this way and I'm just thankful that I still have the leg!! My point is that I prefer "physically challenged" to any other term. As an aside--did you know that the term "handicapped" comes from the disabled sitting on street corners with their caps in their hands begging many years ago, and that's how the term was coined. Good luck!!!
Source(s): Been there...done that--- - 1 decade ago
Definately "special needs".. that's what I refer to patients with anything from mental challenges to the physically disabled. Exspecially since some are extremely smart, like the MS patients who seem to have mental (meaning of the mind) when it's really a physical challenge. Good luck with aquiring that position :)
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- 1 decade ago
I would use mental disability. It is generally considered a disability, in the same way you'd refer to a physical disability.
- PacificaLv 61 decade ago
For a while here it was "a person with 'special needs'.
As in, "I enjoy caring for people with special needs".
That would cover any sort of mental/physical disability.
- 7 years ago
Intellectual developmental disability or intellectually disabled.
Source(s): American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 - 1 decade ago
Mentally disabled, mentally retarded, mentally handicapped, handicapable...etc...
- Anonymous1 decade ago
A few grey cells short of normal.