Lift broken in rented office with wheelchair bound employee

Alan2020

googler wrote: »

I'm asking you to tell me why it's seen as derogatory when used in a detached, professional way to differentiate one sector of the workforce from another solely in relation to their abilities to clear the building in an emergency.

References to those from Pakistan, and abbreviated forms thereof aren't relevant to this - it's not a valid comparison

Having worked with at least 20 wheelchair users, I will for one last time explain why it is derogatory.

1. The term wheelchair bound is firstly incorrect - They DON'T need to use a wheelchair. Someone could carry them around, they can have a mobility scooter etc
2. It infers that they are "cursed" to the wheelchair for the rest of their lives - how do we know this? One girl I supervised had to use a wheel chair for 6 months after an operation, is she wheel chair bound?
3. There is etiquette in language usage, I don't know if your first language is English, but if not it may be different in other cultures, so the best way is to familiarise yourself with current usage. It's the way the word is used rather than what it is.
4. Wheel chair bound is just not what wheel chair users would like to be called, and of the 20 I worked with none of them like being called that, and there were 1600 other students, of which 10 or so would call them cripple or wheelchair bound, and these 10 were rude and troublesome kids, who frequently got into trouble with authority. So you should get a perspective of the usage. By the way most of these students were in the age range of 18 to 20. I don't know what say a 60 year old might use as the vocabulary changes with time.
Hope it helps :beer: