The R word

Words matter, the choice of words are important.

With the slip of the tongue we carelessly say words like retard, lame, gay without considering the meaning of these words let alone the consequences.

The R word stems from Latin whereby retardare means to hinder or make slow. The medical world adopted the word in the 20th century to describe people with intellectual disabilities. In 2010 President Obama passed Rosa’s Law whereby the term mental retardation was officially changed to intellectual disability in Federal Law. However, still the R word still frequents everyday conversation to inaccurately describe matters.

As part of the diversity and inclusion movement there has been more focus on disability recently. Gucci’s most liked post on Instagram was of Ellie Goldstein, a beautiful young woman from the UK who has Down’s syndrome. Ellie was photographed as part of Gucci Beauty and Vogue Italia’s scouting project. Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele said “I designed L’Obscur mascara for an authentic person who uses makeup to tell their story of freedom in their way.”

In November 2020 Chris Nikic was the first person to complete an Ironman with Down’s syndrome. An Ironman consists of swimming 3.9 km, cycling 180km and running a marathon (42km). Nikic’s father said “Ironman has served as his platform to become one step closer to his goal of living a life of inclusion and leadership.”

Ellie and Chris are two examples of real people who are not letting their disability slow them down. They are not defined by their disability. Therefore they should not be defined and ostracized by the use of a word which has no reflection on who they are.

I dream of the day when these examples won’t be ground-breaking, instead they will be normal. However we still have a way to go. According to WHO about 15% of the population live with some form of disability. When we use the R word we label these unique individuals in a way which does not accurately describe these members of society. The use of the R word creates an unnecessary divide and decelerates the goal of inclusion further.

Each time I hear the word I cringe. For too long I have not been brave enough to call people out and educate them of the consequences of using this word. Today is World Down’s Syndrome Day. I challenge everyone to consciously think more of their word choice. Change takes time, but what better time than to start today?