Disability Language Guide

Certain words and euphemisms are considered condescending and offensive by the disability community and should be avoided whenever possible. This language guide can help you to choose accurate and respectful words instead.

Preferred Terms

• accessible parking/accommodations
• child/student with disabilities, disabled
• individual without a disability
• individual with a physical disability, disabled
• individual with a spinal cord injury or disability, disabled
• individual with or who has (e.g., multiple sclerosis, HIV, cerebral palsy, mental illness, stroke etc…)
• individual who uses a wheelchair
• blind or has low vision, vision impaired
• deaf of hard of hearing
• individual of short stature, little person
• individual with a cleft lip of cleft palate
• individual with epilepsy or a seizure disorder
• individual with a learning disability
• individual with an intellectual or developmental disability, disabled
• individual with dyslexia, dyslexic
• individual with a psychiatric disability, with a mental health diagnosis, metal illness, or mentally ill
• individual with autism or autistic
• assistance animal, service dog
• Down syndrome or Trisomy 21

Terms to Avoid

• handicapped accessible
• special, special needs
• able-bodied, normal, whole
• crippled, lame, handicapped, deformed, defective, differently abled, handicapable, special needs
• quadriplegic, paraplegic, incapacitated
• suffers from, victim of (e.g., multiple sclerosis, HIV, cerebral palsy, mental illness, stroke etc…)
• wheelchair-bound, confined to a wheelchair
• visually impaired
• deaf and dumb, deaf-mute
• dwarf or midget
• hare lip
• epileptic, spastic, person who has ‘fits’ or ‘attacks’
• slow learner, special needs, r-word, stupid
• slow, special needs, re-word, stupid,
• crazy, maniac, lunatic, demented, schizo, psycho, feeble-minded, deranged, spaz, mad, nuts, insane
• special needs, r-word, stupid
• seeing-eye dog (refers only to a service do specifically trained to assist an individual who is blind or has low vision)
• Down’s syndrome, Downs, special needs, r-word

The above material is adapted from Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities by the Research and Training Center on Independent Living at The University of Kansas and the National Disability Rights Network’s Words Matter – Guidelines for Reporting and Writing About People with Disabilities. For more information visit rtcil.org or ndrn.org.