cripple

person/individual with a disability/orthopedic disability/physical disability/functional limitation, someone with paraplegia/arthritis. Omit references to a disability if it is not strictly necessary to your material. "Cripple" (and "crip") follow the insider/outsider rule, that is, they are derogatory and absolutely unacceptable except when used by people with disabilities who self-identify as having a disability. "People—crippled or not—wince at the word cripple, as they do not at handicapped or disabled. Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger. But, to be fair to myself, a certain amount of honesty underlies my choice. Cripple seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise.... As a lover of words, I like the accuracy with which it describes my condition: I have lost the full use of my limbs" (Nancy Mairs). Disability activists have recently reclaimed the word, and Cripple Magazine, “run by and run for young disabled creatives,” has adopted hashtags like “#criplit” and “#cripthevote” while others still oppose its usage. See also disabilities, handicapped, insider/outsider rule, wheelchair-bound.