Lawmakers are considering legislation that might change how we speak about people with disabilities.
The word “handicapped” is no longer used to talk about people who live with disabilities. John Toscano with the Virginia Disability Commission says the reason for that is what it says about the relationship between people and their conditions.
"If you say that's a handicapped person, you are speaking about their limitations before you speak about the person," Toscano says. "If you're saying that's a person with a disability then you are forced to first and foremost understand they're an individual, they're a person and then there's this other aspect of their life."
Advocates are pressing lawmakers to introduce legislation to change all references in the Virginia code from "handicapped" to "disabled." Delegate Kaye Kory says lawmakers should have done this a long time ago, and it's a change that might have far-reaching consequences -- including the parking lot of your local grocery store.
"Requiring the replacement of all the signage, some of it's public and some of it’s private," she explains. "This effort would take cooperation from a lot of different sectors of our society."
A few years ago, lawmakers made a similar change, swapping references in the code from mental retardation to intellectual disability.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
