by Patricia Digh, 1999
Imagine how shocking it would be to pick up a newspaper today and read a front-page story about a "colored" or "Negro" politician or businessman. Yet, the print and broadcast media still describe people with disabilities with equally archaic and demeaning phrases such as "handicapped," "differently abled," "challenged" and "special."
Furthermore, while journalists do not include a person's ethnic or racial minority group status in articles unless it is a crime report or pertinent to the story, a disability inevitably gets mentioned regardless of the story's topic.
Here are some guidelines for writing about people with disabilities.
