15th June 2008, 2:53 PM
As a side note, I remember when people had the good willed but in the end intellectually dishonest tactic of renaming the disabled "disABLED". Sure the idea was to say they have capabilities, but they can't lie and act like the "dis" part of the word doesn't even exist by (literally) minimizing that. That is what more or less defines their medical condition. Blind people are blind, and no amount of calling them "the abled" accurately reflects that. What they need are things like musical street lights, not good feelings.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)