The first thing you learn is how awful words are. As a person who nearly always talks too fast, I’m used to words tripping and stumbling and getting caught in each other as they slip out. I’m used to incomprehensibly large words and pretty literary devices being shoved in, for the effect! For the drama! For the extra marks! I’m used to repeating, to retelling stories, to modifying them the second time to be more precise.
I’m NOT used to words being painful. Not used to the sound being formed but never escaping. Not used to adjectives, verbs, adverbs, everything being dispensable so long as the idea gets across. Not used to incomprehensible words instead of just incomprehensibly large.
Not used to an open mouth without a single sound.
Without words, they are still people. Wonderful, eccentric little people. Each one of them has a detailed medical analysis on the wall on a bright pink starfish, each parent has at least once lamented their fate, and they still have wipe mouths gaping open in some semblance of a smile.
Their personalities are seen in actions, rather than conversations, because we still judge them by the laws of the regular world. We judge them by how quick to learn compared to the others, despite already having set them aloof from the quick learners. We judge them by how quick to grasp commands, how quick they learn to hold a pencil and follow the dotted line.
When they run, I run after them, not simply to amuse them with the chase, but to make sure they don’t stumble on the smooth pavement.
They have learning disabilities. They are not retarded.
To the person who said ‘that’s fucking retarded’ to me today, this has been a PSA.
Because when people hear you talk like this, they form an opinion about you that I don’t think an educated, self-respecting person like you wants to be associated with.And when you open your mouth and words like “retard” come out, well, it makes you look dumb. And a bigot. And kind of a jerk.
Do yourself and the world a favor and stop using the word “retard.”
Period.
No questions. No excuses. Just stop.
You just need to stop using words like this. No judgment or shame. Just stop using them. It’s okay, you didn’t know. But now you do. So, stop.
colorlesskenopsia
Colorless Kenopsia 
June 13, 2017 at 10:06 AM
Well, Congress did pass Rosa’s Law, which changed references to “mental retardation” in specified Federal laws to “intellectual disability,” and references to “a mentally retarded individual” to “an individual with an intellectual disability.” So, I think we’ve moved away from the usage of the word ‘retarded’
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