no i'm not talking about abc's show last night. although i did watch the part about the grocery clerk with down syndrome. i was glad to see people who didn't have a connection to ds stand up for the guy. i wondered what i would have done if i hadn't had henry. i would like to think i would have said something. i think i would have said something if anyone was treating anyone, regardless of having a disability or not, like that. everyone is a human being and doesn't deserve to be treated like that. having had henry, i would have had a hard time not decking the actors.
anyways, today henry had his first dental appointment. went great. his teeth and mouth are very healthy and look wonderful.
however, as i was filling out the paperwork before we went back there was a list of boxes to check. things such as does your child have- congential heart defect, heart murmur, seizures, etc. i then get to "mental handicap" and physical handicap." hmmm. i get this "those words are rubbing the wrong way" kind of feeling. and first let me say that i never get offended if people don't use the proper terms regarding anything. i was uneducated before henry and i can't expect anything different from someone who doesn't have a personal connection to someone with a disability. unless someone is being hurtful...then that's a different story.
but this is a dental office. it's a professional setting. shouldn't the proper words be used? so i'm thinking, do i say something? it's not a huge deal to me and i'm not a confrontational person, especially when i don't have to be. ;) also, this is our first visit. i don't want to come off as someone unpleasant. then on the other side if they have a problem with me saying something then this isn't the office for us. i call justin to get some info for the paperwork and run it by him. he thinks it's not the greatest words to use, either.
so what did i do? i put an arrow next to physical handicap and mental handicap and wrote in, "not the most up to date language to use." with a smile face. smiley faces make everything better. lol. i was looking at something in the office and watched the receptionist out of the corner of my eye go through the paperwork. she looked up, looked at henry and then looked back down at the paperwork. i'm assuming she saw. i also know the dentist and her assistant saw it as well because they discussed his heart defect which was in the same section. whether or not they change their forms who knows, but i gave it a little try. now if the word retarded had been used i probably would have actually said something or wrote in, "this is very offensive language, please do not use."
but what would you have done?
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one of my comments reminded me i had done a post on peoples' first language so i thought i would post the link.
3 comments:
i think you handled it well - hopefully they get the message and think about "updating" their terminology :)
All right, I'm totally showing my age but what is the most up to date language? I do, however, think you handled it in a brilliant manner. Really, very well done, not aggresive or confrontational, but definitely got your point across.
dorothy,
i added onto my post at the bottom. there is a link to using peoples' first language. and i agree terms do have a lot to do with age. a lot of people who are in their 80s, 90s would look at henry and might refer to him as retarded or a mongoloid. that's the term they know...but it's never too late to learn something new. :)
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