Joint Statement of Disability Leaders

We came here today to meet with Rahm Emanuel and share with him our view on the importance and impact of language.  We wanted to invite Mr. Emanuel and all of America to understand the collective efforts of our community to remove the words “retard” and “retarded” from everyday speech. 

The R-word is polluting our language.  Every day our community hears this word – in schools and workplaces, in print and in movies, on radio and television.  And every day they suffer its dehumanizing effects – mockery, stigma, ridicule.  This is a word that is incredibly damaging – not only to the seven million people with intellectual disabilities, but also their friends, family and to all of us.

We are thankful to Mr. Emanuel for meeting with us today and hearing our concerns. He sincerely apologized for his mistake and the pain it caused in our community.

We are happy that he will join more than 54,000 other Americans in pledging to end the use of the R-word at www.r-word.org, and that he committed that the administration would continue to look for ways to partner with us, including examining pending legislation in Congress to remove the R-word from federal law.

Our community has earned the right to be respected instead of ridiculed.  We have suffered injustice for generations and we are demanding that it end. 

This is another small step on the road to a country that accepts the gifts of all.



Statement given jointly by:

Timothy Shriver, Chairman and CEO, Special Olympics
Andrew Imparato, President & CEO, American Association of People with Disabilities
Peter V. Berns, CEO, The Arc
Hannah Jacobs, parent and R-word advocate
Julie Petty, self-advocate and former SABE president
Ricardo Thornton, self-advocate and Special Olympics athlete

# # #

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change – politically, economically, and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To learn more, visit the AAPD website: www.aapd.com.