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Old 06-18-2009, 10:07 PM
DGTess DGTess is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CobraKai View Post
It's not just the word - it's what the word contributes to.According to Special Olympics, less than 10% of people with intellectual disabilities in the United States are employed, compared to 50% of U.S. Special Olympics athletes, compared to 92% of the general population. By using the r-word, people indirectly help ostracize those with intellectual disabilities – by increasing awareness of the issue, we can help foster a greater acceptance of those with intellectual disabilities into our community.
And while I'm no expert on the full spectrum of intellectual disabilities, I can imagine cases where one with an intellectual disability is not retarded. Off the top of my head, I pose dyslexia. Dyslexics have an intellectual disability (or "challenge", if you prefer), but most are NOT retarded. Some autistic individuals, IIRC, have intellectual disabilities, but are not retarded. Others are.

So lumping them all together to make a case for social engineering based on labels is, in my mind, somewhat suspect. It seems a case of finding "facts" to "prove" something.
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