Leadership opportunities have come slowly to people with intellectual disabilities. But for a new generation, removing the word "retarded" out of all medical and legal lexicon has turned them into confident "self- advocates."Publicity surrounding the use of language that is offensive to people with disabilities by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and his subsequent apology is highlighting efforts by advocate groups to remove such derogatory language from legal and medical terminology. Because of these efforts -- by groups as well as an increasing number of people with disabilities acting as self-advocates -- states have begun to remove the language from their legal codes, and many have removed it from the names of human-service agencies as well. The Washington Post
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