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"Timmargh"

I've just been forwarded a load of emails to do with disability.

It says here:

"The government's own 'Minister for disabled people' (Anne McGuire) refers to herself as just that. Many disabled people find the term 'people with disabilities' offensive and most of the major disability charities - RADAR, Scope etc - use the term 'disabled people'. The Department for Work and Pensions who lead on disability issues also use this preferred term."

What the fu..? Unless I've gone mental that's saying that the term 'people with disabilities' is offensive, while the term 'disabled people' is not.

I don't know any other wheelies I can ask - can you explain this horsesh!t to me?

>
> I utterly hate Ricky Gervais as a stand up comic, one of THE least
> funny people I've ever had to watch, and I once watched my nan.

Is it just me or is that "I once watched my nan" bit a really sinister image?

i agree, that does sound a little sinister

Light: most people who decide which terms are offensive and which are not aren't actually disabled - they just assume disabled people will take offence. Some terms are frowned upon, e.g. "special", "brave" and other patronising stuff - we're not brave, we're just getting on with it. Any crip who takes offence at "disabled" or "handicapped" most likely has a chip on their shoulder. And calling someone "handi-capable" will probably get you a wheelchair on your foot or worse.

Personally I don't care what people call me as I know a lot of perambulators just don't know how to handle it - they get flustered and worried I'll take offence. I never take offence ... unless I'm being patronised. That's usually the case with anyone who has a disability of any kind, e.g. a stutter, deafness etc.

My fondness of the term "crip" is partly because it's easy for me to say (I have speech problems with certain letters) but mostly because it shocks people and snaps them out of the usual way people talk to me when they realise I can joke about it.

Timmargh, how exactly are you disabled?

this summer, I volunteered at a Vitalise centre which is like a holiday camp for disabled people, though anyone could go if they want to. there were various excursions and whatnot, and my god the attitudes of some people really pisssed me off.

one was to a shopping centre, and each volunteer was assigned to a guest. I got a guy called Howard, who was really decent, and a kinda manical Arsenal fan, so we could talk really endlessly about football.

anyway, when we were going round the shopping centre, when we went into shops, assistants nearly always talked to me instead of Howard, even though I clearly wasn't showing any interest. he had some degnerative muscle condition, which meant that he couldn't speak very loudly, but whenever he tried, they just completely ignored him and looked at me instead, and it was really really irritating. eventually when we went into shops I just turned my back on the assistant and went to look at something else if they tried to talk to me, it was the only way they'd listen to Howard

another thing was some of the shop assistants were just over eager, trying to do things which he could clearly do himself, and just complicating matters. another thing they did was if they didn't hear him, instead of asking him to repeat they looked at me balnkly, it was just so incredibly rude

aaargh, some people

Random crip-question that just came to me...

Timmargh, if you end up completely plastered on a night, do you wake up and find that you've been wheeled into wierd/wonderful/odd places?

Tops, thanks for that Timmargh. Kinda suspected as much but...well, didn't want to fall into the same trap as these PC cockwallahs; that of assuming a particular group of society is less capable of thinking for themselves and arriving at their own conclusions.

Timmargh wrote:
> And calling someone "handi-capable" will probably get you a wheelchair > on your foot or worse.

Ahahaha, nice mental image of Timmy owning someone's foot.

> My fondness of the term "crip" is partly because it's easy
> for me to say (I have speech problems with certain letters) but
> mostly because it shocks people and snaps them out of the usual way
> people talk to me when they realise I can joke about it.

But that's ok for you, because you're a jolly fellow (online, anyway), but other...er..."ability-challenged"...people may take offence, which makes it awkward for anyone confronted with a situation where they don't know how to approach you. That's why someone, somewhere, has to decide what you are, as opposed to who you are - for the sake of proles.

Aye, your acceptance of the term crip, and light-hearted use of, means it now slips off my tongue at the worst times, with me vacantly thinking I've said nothing wrong.

I think it was 'cripmobile'.

Now for the patronising bit. It's okay for you to use the term 'crip' Timmargh, you're reclaiming the word, much in the same way as the homosexual community have taken back terms previously deemed unnacceptable. ;o)

Yeah, I agree with Meka and his homo community.