Products for Independent Living: Text for Poster: "Your Words, Our Image"

The poster

You can contribute to a positive image of people with disabilities by following these guidelines. Your rejection of stereotypical, outdated language and use of respectful terms will help to promote a more objective and honest image.

Add a caption for accessibility
Say this	Instead of
How should I describe you or your disability?	What are you? What happened to you?
Disability	Differently abled, challenged
Survivor	Victim, suffers from
Uses a wheelchair, wheelchair user	Confined to a wheelchair
Service dog or service animal	Seeing eye dog
Accessible parking or restroom	Handicapped parking, disabled stall
Person with Down Syndrome	Mongoloid
Intellectual disability	Mentally retarded, mental retardation
Autistic, on the autism spectrum, atypical	Abnormal
Person with a brain injury	Brain damaged
Person of short stature, little person	Midget dwarf
Person with a learning disability	Slow learner, retard
Person with mental illness, psychiatric disability	Crazy person, psycho, insane
Person with spinal cord injury	Cripple
Amputee, has limb loss	Gimp
Nondisabled, person without a disability	Normal, able bodied, healthy

Want More Information?

Download our brochure Guidelines: How to Write about People with Disabilities.