Massachusetts House starts considering bill to remove words disparaging to people with disabilities

BOSTON — A bill to remove outdated and disparaging terms used to describe people with disabilities from Massachusetts laws is moving through the Legislature – and advocates hope it will finally pass this year.

Supporters say it’s ten years in the making.

“This is so frustrating,” said Melissa Reilly, office aide and disability policy advisor for state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat. “I definitely need to get this work done this year.”

Reilly has an extensive resume – as a decorated Special Olympian who medaled in skiing in Japan in 2005 and in South Korea in 2013, and a self advocate in the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress.

But she said that what she’s fighting for now is bigger than herself – she said she’s fighting for a community.

Words like the “r-word,” disabled, and handicapped appear in several Massachusetts laws.

“I want to see for the people with disabilities like me, that we don’t have to hear this word ever again,” Reilly said.

“Change the law,” she said. “We need to get this word out of the system.”

Reilly is pushing for passage of the so-called archaic language bill, which would remove the disparaging references from all state laws and replace them with more respectful and empowering language.

“Part of the way that the sort of civil rights movement within the disability community has made progress is to make sure that we don’t use these offensive words literally in our laws,” Sen. Eldridge said.

Sen. Eldridge, of Worcester, said versions of this bill have been filed for five sessions, and that Reilly has been one of the strongest advocates – year after year.

“She’s reached out to almost every legislator in the Massachusetts legislature,” he said. “She’s had coffee, you know, with a lot of legislators to convince them to co-sponsor the bill.”

Reilly said the bill’s passage would mean a lot to her, and other people living with disabilities.

“Hopefully, this is the year,” she said.

Other states in New England – including Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island - have removed words disparaging to people living with disabilities from state laws and statutes. In Connecticut, New Haven has passed a similar ordinance.

“Sometimes we’re the first in the nation, but sometimes we’re in the middle of the pack,” Sen. Eldridge said. “And I think right now we’re in the middle of the pack around this issue.”

The Joint Committee on Children and Families and Persons with Disabilities voted the bill favorably out of committee on Feb. 15.

The bill’s now making its way through the House – where it was ordered to a third reading on Feb. 20.

“It’s been a long time ever since I’ve been working on this piece of legislation,’ Reilly said. “And I can’t believe there’s nothing, nothing working.”

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