Beijing withdraws advice on disabilities
May 30th, 2008Associated Press report in the International Herald Tribune:
Olympic organizers said Thursday that they had withdrawn parts of an English translation of a guide for volunteers because of “inappropriate language” used to describe disabled athletes.
Zhang Qiuping, director of the Paralympic Games in Beijing, did not offer an apology and attributed the problems to poor translation. “Probably it’s cultural difference and mistranslation,” Zhang said.
The Chinese-language version of the text remained online and was nearly identical to the English, using essentially the same stereotypes to refer to the disabled.
The guide described people with disabilities as unsocial, stubborn, controlling, defensive and possessing a strong sense of inferiority. See earlier post: Disabled groups outraged by Beijing snub.


