Late comedian George Carlin was famous for his routine about the seven dirty words that weren't allowed on TV or radio.
VANOC has a list of more than three dozen terms that are off-limits for those wanting to volunteer at the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The official My Games Training manual includes a list of forbidden terms such as cripple, spastic, lunatic, crazy, nuts, retarded, idiot and mongoloid.
Acceptable terms include "person with ..." a disability, mobility impairment or mental illness" and "person who is ..." deaf, blind, hard-of-hearing or visually impaired.
"Words we use sometimes paint a picture of people with disabilities as victims or sufferers.
"Most are not; they live with their disability, rather than being defined by it," said the section obtained by 24 hours.
"People with disabilities are people first, treat them no differently than any other customer."
The no-no list also includes the popular 1990s politically correct terms "physically challenged" and "differently-abled."
Even the seemingly innocuous word "patient" is banned in favour of "person with a disability, client or consumer of medical services."
Bob Mackin reports for 24 hours.
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Grumpy
3 years ago
I guess the lunatic fringe..........
........at VANOC will go crazy if any volunteer goes spastic and uses one of the forbidden words. One thinks the meddling moral cripples at VANOC are nuts, or worse retarded, to worry over such things. Really, what are they going to do to the idiots who call someone a mongoloid? Send them to volunteer jail? Listen to Gordo's speeches over and over again?
Really, I'm tired of 2010, the Olympics in general and all those intellectual midgets who pretend to do something, all on the taxpayers expense.
Way the US economy is going, I don't think many Americans care either. How about the one where some one had an Olympic and no one came.
So with not so glowing hearts, Furlong and Gordo can take 2010 and stick it.
brenton
3 years ago
Consumers?
"consumer of medical services"
What? I hate this way of describing people who use something or attend something. If I go to the opera am I a "consumer of cultural services"? People use medical services and receive medical attention as patients, not as consumers. Ridiculous.
DPL
3 years ago
The dirty word that I find
The dirty word that I find really offensive is VANOC. something must be in the water they drink. They are sounding like a overwelming authority of something. who elected them? Nobody that's who. When the NDP started lobbying for the games I went along as I expected it would not degenerate into a flashy over the top event wiht some folks making tons of money, and people getting displaced. Greed, arrogance, stupid are other words that come to mind. In the next election we can get rid of King Gordo and all his merry men at VANOC