Social Security to Finally Drop Term “Mental Retardation”
The Social Security Administration has announced it is dropping the term “mental retardation.”
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking states the SSA will start using “intellectual disability” in its official listing of impairments instead.
The new language is made possible by Rosa’s Law, which was enacted in 2010 to end the use of the term “mental retardation” and substitute it with “intellectual disability” in federal health, education and labor policy statutes. However, the legislation did not cover programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
If you or your local parent organization wishes to submit a comment on the proposed rule, go to the Federal eRulemaking portal. The docket number is SSA-2012-0066. Your comment can be a simple one, such as: “As the parent of a son/daughter with Down syndrome, I congratulate the Social Security Administration for its efforts to substitute the outmoded term ‘mental retardation’ with ‘intellectual disability’ and encourage every effort to promote inclusive and people-first language.”
For more information, read the story on Disability Scoop.
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