Alt Text

HomeTimelineSearch
willow
some of my favorite anecdotes are from this book
Loneliness and Its Opposite, pg 35-36. Don Kulick and Jens Rydström. Denmark is strikingly different on this front—there, there is little or no political correctness when it comes to the language used to talk about disability. Even people who work most closely with and care most passionately about people with significant disabilities habitually use words like spastic (spastiker) when referring to people with cerebral palsy—and, indeed, people with cerebral palsy call themselves spastics. The name of their advocacy organization is the Association of Spastics (Spastikerforeningen), and their bi- monthly magazine is called The Spastic (Spastikeren). Another telling example that succinctly sums up Denmark’s unique relationship to politically correct language regarding disability is what happened to the Danish Association for People with Restricted Growth (Landsforening for Væktshæmmede). In June 2007, by a vote of its members, the association officially changed its name to the Association of Dwarves (Dværgeforeningen). Their members’ magazine is Short and Sweet (Kort og Godt). And at one of the group homes where Don lived while conducting fieldwork, he sat outside one morning having a cup of coffee with a female social worker in her sixties who had worked in that group home for twenty years. This woman was devoted to her job and clearly was much loved by the young men and women who lived in the group home. In between puffs of her cigarette, she turned to Don to tell him a story about a young woman who lived there. “Og så har vi den lille mongol,” she said: “We have the little mongoloid.” As soon she said “den lille mongol,” the woman stopped and apologized, perhaps because she noticed that Don had nearly choked on his coffee. “Oh, undskyld,” she said. “Sorry; I know I shouldn’t say ‘little.’ She’s an adult.”