Disability advocacy groups fight offensive language
October 16th, 2008
By Karen Meyer on WLS-TV, Chicago (ABC affiliate), with video:
Correspondent Karen Meyer interviews people with disabilities and disability rights advocates who are offended by the use of the word “retard” in the film “Tropic Thunder.”
Meyer, who is deaf, speaks and signs simultaneously while the text of her words is spelled out across the screen in close-captioning. “Whether it’s language or action, negative portrayals of people with disabilities often opens doors to prejudice and abuse,” she says.
She uses her own voice to narrate the piece, and includes footage and interviews of people with disabilities. Here’s what people were saying:
“Words are very powerful and your words form attitudes, beliefs, values that turn into actions. People who might watch this movie might say, well people who are retards, I don’t want them working in my company, I don’t want them living in my neighborhood I don’t want them participating in my schools next to my child.”
— Jon Voit, president and CEO of Seguin Services, a not-for-profit serving people with developmental disabilities.
“When I’ve seen the movie I did not like how they put us down. It was the very vulgarest movie I’ve ever seen. The language and how they made fun of handicapped people.”
— Glenora Mills, a woman with a developmental disability
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October 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I agree about the movie. I don’t want anything to do with that movie. i think the people that have a developmental disability are the ones that are normal. they are the ones that don’t take life for granted.