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Comment by jeherr | Hacker News Reader

I definitely recognize this process (and have heard the term euphemism treadmill from McWhorter the other commenter pointed out) but since when has "disabled" been used as a slur? I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone using disabled in a derogatory manner like you would hear "retarded" commonly used now.

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I get the sense that "disabled" is still in its avant-garde phase. "retarded" passed that in my circles maybe a few years ago, but also there was a time where it was much like "disabled" is today.

Aside, somehow "retarded" got replaced by "special needs" or "short bus" in some circles which also sounds insulting to me, so maybe we'll continue this treadmill for awhile longer.

this button is disabled this button is retarded this button is special needs

I could go with the first two in a code review.

And then you could go explain that second one to HR.

It’s the French translation

"Short bus" was always a slur.

Where I am disabled is not in common use.

Differently abled is OK. Learning differences or special needs also works. Disabilities I think is still OK.

I'm kind of on board with getting away from retarded and disabled.

I literally recall "differently abled" as being the punch line to a joke (Simpsons perhaps?). A character put his foot in his mouth, and tried to back-pedal and sort of ad-hoc formulated the phrase "differently abled" as a way to sound more PC and sensitive. It was quite literally supposed a joke at the time.

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