"Special" Words

*This post is meant to be just for fun. Apologies if anyone is offended*


I’m a person with different abilities who was looking to be included in the workforce. An organization for neurodiverse individuals set me up with an Inclusion Specialist. Now I take special transportation, known locally as Para Transpo, to and from the office three days a week.

If anything about that statement seems odd to you then you're not alone.

When I was writing the post about channeling George Carlin, I was watching some clips of his stand-up, and he did a bit about euphemisms and political correctness. Part of that bit was about language within and about the disability community. Over the last month or so, I've been casually writing down as many disability-related euphemisms as I can, and I've come up with quite a list!

There's standards like disabled and handicapped, "positive" spins on those like differently-abled and handicapable, and person-first language like person with a disability and person with different abilities. 

I picked up on tons of old-timey words like crippled, mad, deviant, lame, infirm, and invalid.

I read a bunch of slang like crip, gimp, wheelie, aspie, and spoonie (related to autism, but I forget how). I even remembered a friend with a shunt calling themselves an airhead. 

You've got mental retardation and every one of its unfortunate derivatives.

All the "special" words and phrases, from special needs and special education to special siblings and special purpose. I looked up that last one in Google. None of the results had to do with disabilities, but most did mention military surplus and auto parts!

I noticed that, when I need a drive somewhere, I use an accessible parking permit. However, when I reach my destination, the vehicle parks in a handicapped parking spot. And when I fly, I take advantage of pre-boarding as a person in need of assistance.

I wrote down exceptional (referencing education), neurodiverse, which I actually think sounds pretty cool, and access inclusion seeker, which is a term that exists, apparently.  And finally, because of COVID, there's vulnerable.

I'm not writing this post to be judgey, or tell people how to talk or anything. I just figured there's an insane amount of weird words out there related to disabilities, and thought it would be a fun little exercise to see how many I could write down.

Cheers!