BBC - The Ouch! Blog: Blind? Or visually impaired?
Here's an interesting contribution to the never-ending debate about language, and what the 'right' terms are (or aren't) for various impairments: Hospital 'insulted' blind man. And how was he insulted? Well, a member of the hospital staff called him 'visually impaired' rather than 'blind' - something about which the man at the centre of the story, 71-year-old pensioner Charles Parsons, feels most strongly:
"They told me they needed to ask me some questions about my incapacity. I was asked if I was visually impaired, to which I replied, 'No, I'm blind'. Then she said she was not able to use the term 'blind', just the term 'visually impaired' . . . Impaired vision and blindness are different things: there are a lot of short-sighted, one-eyed people out there, but they aren't blind. I've no objection to being asked what is wrong, but I will not stand for having my disability played down. It's insulting."
Read full article from BBC - The Ouch! Blog: Blind? Or visually impaired?
No comments:
Post a Comment