Indiana disability advocate explains why it helps to drop the MR term from state language

From The Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind.:

Betty Williams (pictured) says people with disabilities still have a ways to go to dispel stereotypes, but she points to a small success earlier this year in the Indiana General Assembly.

At the urging of Williams, a former Richmond resident, the Indiana Commission on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which advises legislators on disabilities, changed its name to the Commission on Developmental Disabilities.

"People with developmental disabilities -- we don't like the word 'retardation,'" she said. "It holds us back."

Williams has cerebral palsy. She and other disabled people are reflecting on their progress this weekend as the Americans with Disabilities Act passes a milestone.

The ADA, signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush, outlaws discrimination against people with disabilities in the same way the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race and gender.

"We've made huge progress," said Nancy Griffin, a longtime advocate, "but there's an awful lot to do."

Griffin recently had a difficult time at Indianapolis' new airport. The shuttle bus didn't have a lift for her wheelchair.

Since the ADA's passage, however, public transportation is much improved for people with disabilities, says Karen Vaughn, a quadriplegic. Indianapolis' city buses are equipped with either lifts or ramps.

The one area that has seen no improvement in the past 19 years, say Vaughn and the others, is the workplace.

"People still say to me: 'You work?'" Vaughn says. "I say, 'Yes, don't be so surprised.'"

The unemployment rate for disabled people is consistently higher than the national average -- 14.3 percent last month, compared with 9.5 percent for people with no disabilities, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Williams, a trainer with Arc of Indiana, a nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities, says having a job is central to "being a part of your community."

She recalls being unemployed, collecting Supplemental Security Income. She never missed the "Guiding Light" soap opera. She was miserable.

"But when you work, your self-esteem rises," she says. "You feel great. We've all got to get over that next hurdle."