‘Urdu term for special persons is derogatory’
PADIL chairperson Ashba Kamran says special persons had a wider range of capabilities than disabled persons.
File photo of a person in a wheelchair. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
The Urdu term used for special persons insinuated disability, Pakistan Association for Disabilities in Learning (PADIL) chairperson Ashba Kamran said on Thursday.
She said special persons had a wider range of capabilities than disabled persons. Placing them in the same category was incorrect, she said, the term for special persons, widely translated into Urdu, meant disabled persons. She said the government should constitute a committee of Urdu professors and media persons to coin a new Urdu term for special persons. Kamran said that society associated the word ‘disabled’ with stigma. Parents often remained in denial rather than accept their child as a special person.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.
The Urdu term used for special persons insinuated disability, Pakistan Association for Disabilities in Learning (PADIL) chairperson Ashba Kamran said on Thursday.
She said special persons had a wider range of capabilities than disabled persons. Placing them in the same category was incorrect, she said, the term for special persons, widely translated into Urdu, meant disabled persons. She said the government should constitute a committee of Urdu professors and media persons to coin a new Urdu term for special persons. Kamran said that society associated the word ‘disabled’ with stigma. Parents often remained in denial rather than accept their child as a special person.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.