Some Positive and Negetive Words

Positive language empowers. When writing or speaking about people with disabilities, it is important to put the person first. Group designations such as "the blind," "the retarded" or "the disabled" are inappropriate because they do not reflect the individuality, equality or dignity of people with disabilities. Further, words like "normal person" imply that the person with a disability isn't normal, whereas "person without a disability" is descriptive but not negative. The accompanying chart shows examples of positive and negative phrases.

Affirmative Phrases

person with an intellectual, cognitive, developmental disability

person who is blind, person who is visually impaired

person with a disability

person who is deaf

person who is hard of hearing

person who has multiple sclerosis

person with cerebral palsy

person with epilepsy, person with

seizure disorder

person who uses a wheelchair

person who has muscular dystrophy

person with a physical disability, physically disabled

unable to speak, uses synthetic speech

person with psychiatric disability

person who is successful, productive

Negative Phrases

retarded; mentally defective

the blind

the disabled; handicapped

the deaf; deaf and dumb

suffers a hearing loss

afflicted by MS

CP victim

epileptic

confined or restricted to a wheelchair

stricken by MD

crippled; lame; deformed

dumb; mute

crazy; nuts

has overcome his/her disability; is courageous (when it implies the person has courage because of having a disability). 

Source: Online