| Instead Of |
- Use |
 |
| Deaf |
- Hearing impaired |
|
| Blind |
- Visually impaired |
|
| Dumb |
- Speech impaired |
|
| Retarded/mental |
- Person with intellectual disabilities (different from person with a mental illness) |
|
| Retarded/ESN children (ESN - Educationally subnormal) |
- Children with learning difficulties |
|
| Dyslexic child |
- Child with dyslexia |
|
| Disabled/handicapped |
- Person/persons with disabilities |
|
| Very disabled |
- Person/persons with severe disabilities |
|
| Afflicted with/suffers from/victim of/crippled with/stricken with |
- Has |
|
| Wheelchair-bound/confined to a wheelchair |
- Uses a wheelchair |
|
Social work (when used to refer to what volunteers do
for community) |
- Community work |
|
| Social worker (when used to refer to someone who contributes to society by volunteering) |
- Volunteers |
|
| Mental patient |
- Person with mental illness |
|
| Ex-mental patient |
- Person recovering from mental illness |
|
| Went mad/nuts |
- Suffered a mental breakdown |
|
| See the shrink |
- Seek help/go for professional help/treatment/counselling |
|
| Mad/cracked pot/psychopath (a specific term often misused and confused with mentally retarded) |
- As far as possible, use specific terms for specific mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia |
|
| Druggie |
- Drug user |
|
| Ex-drug addict |
- Recovering drug addict |
|
| Ex-con/ex-convict/ex-prisoner |
- Discharged prisoner |
|
| Death-house |
- Hospice |
|
| Slow learner |
- Person/child with learning difficulties/problems |
|
| Old man/old woman |
- The elderly/senior citizens |
