As individuals, they' re demanding to move into their own homes and take decent-paying jobs. They are also influencing the way other people regard and refer to them. For Nancy Ward, who was labeled mentally retarded as a child, an early victory came in the mid-1980s when she and other advocates persuaded the Nebraska state legislature to eliminate words like moron and idiot from state regulations.
Terminology is very important to people trying to change perceptions.
It includes mental retardation but also autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and neurological impairments. The self-advocates' agenda, however, is not without controversy. Some take issue with the self-advocates' national goal of closing institutions for the mentally retarded and placing the residents in small group homes and other community settings. A group of parents in Connecticut is fighting an attempt by a self-advocacy group called People First to close a facility there. Some people, for instance, require feeding tubes or have other physical conditions that require the constant medical supervision available in an institution but not in a community residence, she said.