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Insults led MRDD to change name

Advocates with disabilities pushed for shift to remove negative stereotype from state and local agencies

Ruben Garcia, who is working at Developmental Disability Services, was an advocate for the recent name change of the organization. Garcia is talking with Dan Bertke, a production supervisor at the facility.

Staff photo by Ron Alvey Ruben Garcia, who is working at Developmental Disability Services, was an advocate for the recent name change of the organization. Garcia is talking with Dan Bertke, a production supervisor at the facility.

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 1:53 AM Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The widespread use of “retard” as a put-down has led the state and county agencies that serve people with mental retardation to drop the terminology from their names.

As of today, Oct. 6, the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities is no more, and henceforth will be called the Department of Developmental Disabilities. The change was permitted by a state law passed in July.

Montgomery County’s agency made the switch from MRDD to Developmental Disabilities Services last month.

For both state and county agencies, it’s a change in name only — they will continue to serve people with retardation, cerebral palsy, autism and other disabilities.

The effort to change the name came from “self-advocates,” people with retardation and other disabilities from around the state who advocate for others in the system.

“People have used the term in a way that’s offensive,” said county Superintendent Mark Gerhardstein. “When you’re called a retard, people don’t mean it charitably, and you get it.” He said the new name is “a fairly neutral term to describe a catch-all of conditions” covered by the state and county agencies.

Ruben Garcia, 44, a self-advocate who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, said he initially worried that dropping “mental retardation” from the name would confuse voters in levy elections, but he came to support the move.

“Look back over the years, how far we’ve progressed,” he said. “We’re getting people out of the institutions, we’re learning people with mental retardation can live full lives with help and contribute to the community. They shouldn’t be labeled.”

Latisha Martin, 27, of Englewood, who has mild MR and CP, said the MR label “separates us from the rest of the world. We need to start educating the younger generation to stop using the word ‘retarded.’ ”

Gerhardstein said retardation is an appropriate diagnostic term and acknowledged it has been tainted in slang much like moron and idiot, which once also were clinical terms.

“Unless we change what’s in our heart,” he said, “whatever we change the name to is going to have to be changed again in 20 years.”

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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