Associated Press in the Kansas City Star:

By order of Republican Gov. Matt Blunt, Missouri has dropped the words “mental retardation” from the name of a state agency. Blunt said the change is part of an effort to diminish stereotypes and to show that people with intellectual disabilities are productive members of society.

“The word ‘retardation’ and ‘retarded’ has obviously taken on a demeaning meaning in the popular culture,” Blunt said.

For example, “in polite discussion, we don’t typically use the word ‘retarded’ or ‘retardation,’ so I think it makes sense to remove it from its name,” he said.

Only six states still use the words “mental retardation” in agency names, according to the governor’s office.

The agency will now be known as the Department of Mental Health’s Division of Developmental Disabilities. Previously, it had been the Division of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under intellectual/developmental disabilities, language, stereotypes, stigma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.