What's the Word?

We often take for granted the power of our words until words hurt us personally. But most of us can recall a time when best friend or significant other knew just what to say to push our buttons during an argument, or when a teacher, coach or boss said something to make us doubt our abilities and our contributions. What if instead that person (or in some cases, we ourselves) took a moment to find language that lifted up rather than put down -- what if we chose our words carefully in order to promote love, success, confidence, inclusion and peace?

When you use the R-word, even if you're not doing it intentionally, you're using language that seeks to exclude, to diminish, to degrade.

By using the R-word to describe something stupid, foolish, ignorant, ridiculous, or something you simply don't agree with, you're perpetuating discrimination against individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

You're mocking, among other things, a spectrum of medical diagnoses, the hard work of individuals with special needs to broaden their skills and achieve developmental, educational, and professional milestones, and the work of advocates to create a more inclusive community and opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

We've come such a long way towards inclusion and more equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities, particularly developmental disabilities. A child like Milo who in a previous generation may have been institutionalized and told he could never walk, talk or achieve any level of independence (and that gives me chills just to think about) now has access to resources like therapies, education, healthcare and assistive technology to help him maximize his potential. This didn't come easy and has taken the tireless work of advocates to create a societal change. YOU can be part of that societal change and close the gap that still exists, simply by pledging to choose your words more carefully.

I urge you to take the pledge to end the R-word. You can find the pledge here on the R-word website or you may prefer to sign it via Facebook. Once you do, consider sharing the pledge with your own friends and circle of influence to help educate them about this important movement -- you have more power than you think!

Those of you who know Milo may recognize that the words best describing him (for now) are highlighted in white in the image I created above. The other adjectives (and any number of others not necessarily starting with "R") may or may not describe him one day, but what I hope is that in his lifetime we see an end to using one particular word used to hurt when there's a thesaurus (favorite dinosaur!) full of words that can help instead. It's time to retire, renounce, resign, retreat, reverse, recede and recall the "R-word".

Take the Pledge!