* What is it? Why is it important for educators to know and use? * Respect Dignity Understanding * * Changed terminology from handicapped children to individuals with disabilities. * Individual is placed before the disability * Words are powerful ways to acknowledge and marginalize. * * http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS- 111s2781enr/pdf/BILLS-111s2781enr.pdf * A journey that began as one Maryland family’s battle for respect and acceptance for their daughter and sister, Rosa, became a significant milestone in the ongoing battle for dignity, inclusion and respect of all people with intellectual disabilities when United States President Barack Obama signed bill S.2781 into federal law on October 5, 2010. * *Known as “Rosa’s Law,” the law removes the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" from federal health, education and labor policy and replaces them with people first language “individual with an intellectual disability” and “intellectual disability * *“Using antiquated, degrading terms to describe individuals with disabilities is an affront to the integrity of the person and their family and below our common decency as a people.” *Words Matter * “No person is a label and no person should be reduced to a single characteristic (Lieberman & Arndt, 2004:33) Emphasizes the person, not the disability by person first. Child who is blind instead of blind child. * Individuals with disabilities are “normal” in many ways. The term abnormal has a pejorative implication. All people, laugh, cry, get angry, feel pain, get excited and want to be accepted and have fun. Avoid language that projects struggle, pain, unfortunate, afflicted, victim of or suffering. Person-first language describes what the person has not what the person is. * *Handicapped person *Cerebral palsy victim *A Downs *Dumb, mute *Wheelchair bound or confined *Autistic child *Epileptic *Retarded, retard, *Midget *He is a sped student - He receives special education services *She is brain damaged - She has a brain injury. *She has a problem with - She needs… *Use typical children *Use general Physical Education class * *Mention what the child can do, not what the child cannot do. He can’t use a regular ball. He uses a foam ball She can’t kick a soccer ball She can kick a stationary ball * www.Disabilityisnatural.com