Disability Terminology Chart
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1DISABILITY TERMINOLOGY CHART
When referring to people with disabilities, choose words that reflect dignity and respect. Use language that
describes the person's disability without defining the individual as his or her disability. The following are just some
examples.
INAPPROPRIATE
APPROPRIATE
The disabled, the handicapped
People with disabilities, the disability community
Crippled, suffers from, afflicted with, stricken
Has a disability, is a person with a disability
with, victim of, invalid
Normal person, healthy, whole
People without disabilities, able-bodied, person who is
able to walk, person who can see, etc.
The blind, the deaf
Person who is blind, person who is deaf or hard of hearing
Wheelchair bound, confined or restricted to a
Person who uses a wheelchair, wheelchair user
wheelchair
Handicap parking
Accessible parking, parking for people with disabilities
Dumb, mute
Person who cannot speak, has difficulty speaking, uses
synthetic speech, is non-vocal, non-verbal
Stutterer, tongue-tied
Person with a speech impairment, who has a speech
disability, speech disorder, or communication disability
CP victim, spastic
Person with cerebral palsy
Crippled, lame, deformed
Person with a disability, walks with a cane, uses leg
braces
Epileptic
Person with epilepsy, person with seizure disorder
Fit, attack
Seizure, epileptic episode or event
Crazy, maniac, lunatic, insane, nuts, deranged,
People with emotional disorders, mental illness, mental
psycho, demented
health disability, psychiatric disability
Retard, mentally defective, moron, idiot, slow,
Person with a developmental disability, person with mental
imbecile, feeble-minded, Down’s person,
retardation, person with a developmental delay, person
mongoloid
with Down syndrome or person who is brain injured, has
traumatic brain injury, is brain damaged, with a closed
head injury
Slow learner, retarded
Person who has a learning disability
Dwarf, midget
Short stature, little person
Paraplegic, quadriplegic
Person with spinal cord injury, man with paraplegia,
woman who is paralyzed
Birth defect
Congenital disability, birth anomaly
A post-polio, suffered from polio
Has had polio, experienced polio
Homebound
Stay-at-home, hard for the person to get out
Senile, demented
Person with Alzheimer’s disease, person who has
dementia
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