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Aug 1, 2013

Replace "Mental Retardation" With "Intellectual Disability"

     From a notice in the Federal Register posted today by the Social Security Administration:
We are replacing the term ``mental retardation'' with ``intellectual disability'' in our Listing of Impairments (listings) ... This change reflects the widespread adoption of the term ``intellectual disability'' by Congress, government agencies, and various public and private organizations.

5 comments:

  1. Let the jokes begin... This is too easy. Will CRs be able to profile disability cases for presumptive payment?

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  2. this is actually a poor policy decision, the term "disability" is something that is specifically defined for the purposes of social security (through a long set of regulations).

    Using that term as a descriptor for a type of impairment can, but does not always, result in a determinatio of "disability" will only cause confusion. Not to mention that the population most affected, those with intellectual difficulties, are the same people that would have the most problem differentiating between "disability" and disability.

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  3. I can see the asinine arguments from reps now--

    "the Social Security Administration has already conceded that the claimant's intellectual difficulties constitute a 'disability'..."

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  4. Replace "Mental Retardation" With "Intellectual Disability"

    I wonder if this applies to what I call the people I work with. LOL

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  5. Seriously? The comments above are put forward even as a joke? Cuz if any agency employee put them forward, then it's clear we have stopped hiring highly qualified folks and started just slotting in people in it for the bi-weekly wage alone. No one will be confused. Society has been shifting to the one term from the other for years and the jocularity over the term is sad if from SSA employees.

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