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From: Maggie Kreitzman
Date: 15 Oct 2006
Time: 23:28:07 -0500
Remote Name: 24.180.168.169
Throughout my undergraduate education, my professors have always stressed the importance of using person first language. Since the beginning until recently, I have always used person first language to please my professors. Because they were much more knowledgeable than I was I thought that using person first language was the only way to write and speak. Every now and then I would hear professors refer to a person who stutters as a stutterer. I was shocked! These are the people that enforce the rules of people first language. After reading your presentation, I came to realize that my professors were trying to get us to look at people as a person, not as a disability. However, I am still feeling a little hesitant to refer a person who stutters as a stutterer, or a person with mental retardation as mentally retarded. I do believe that it is up to each individual person to decide what they want to be referred as. And like you replied in a previous posting, once you get to know a person you will know what they want to be referred as. But I am still confused as to what I should do when I am writing clinical reports and other informative papers, or even speaking to someone. Should I continue to use person first language or should I use descriptive labels?