Is it acceptable to use a disabling term in a questionnaire?

[AlexanderHamilton]

Ds has been sent a link to a questionnaire by school. He gets at least one a week, I think it's something to do with a project various 6th formers are doing. No problem with that.

However this one is about attitudes the general public have to a certain condition. It's a condition that some of our family members have. The first question is which of these words best describe someone with this condition. Amongst the list of words is the R word.

I was a bit taken aback but ds says this word is one that he hears used in school & he has actually been called it himself.

There then follows some questions which demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the questionnaire writer but I can forgive that.

I'm not sure whether I should contact the school about this or am I being too sensitive?

"Retard" It is still a perfectly acceptable term in America. Not so much here.

Retardation or is a perfectly acceptable word.

Later it asked the responder to state the differences between autism & aspergers. Seeing as aspergers is a form of autism it wasn't a terribly good question (but as I said I can forgive that)

Alexanderhamilton. I would suggest you also post for support or information in academics corner or education. Context is not all there is to consider, ethics are also important. I think you would get some really useful advice about how to address this issue by posting in a place where people regularly have to consider ethical issues in education and research. For what it's worth I think your gut is telling you something that is worth exploring a little more, for you dd and for the school! Good luck

I can imagine my autistic son being really bemused by that and going directly into school complaining that they were using a disablist word. But for other children I can imagine they might find it hurtful and take it personally. I can see why it would cause you child concern and ywnbu to query it,

I would complain to the school, on the grounds giving a closed question listing various options reinforces the notion that 'retard' is an acceptable word to use for someone with ASD or similar, and might legitimise the word for others who previously thought it was offensive. The school should be vetting stuff like this before it gets sent out. I would be up in arms if this happened at my kids' school.

They should have asked this as an open question for participants to complete themselves. Some might have written 'retard', but to offer it as an option is awful. If it's about surveying attitudes and you're trying to avoid bias, you don't confine people's answers to a few terms.

And I would separately complain about the verbal abuse your DC is having to endure.

im guessing the questionnaire will lead to discussions within school about the topic and im sure the teachers will ensure that they make clear how some words can be offensive. its called teaching

The schools doing EPQ and HPQ would usually use a format such as surveymonkey where you cannot fill in your own options but have to tick a box. In our sxhool the survey goes to their own peer group so yr 12 or yr10 and not to the younger children but yours may go to the whole school if it is only small so that there is a good sample of responses.

I would suppose that it is given as an example as above to show it is unacceptable.

Also in my son's HPQ his supervisor (teacher monitoring his project) had to approve his survey questions before it was circulated.

No not acceptable. If you posted it on a board for children with special needs most of the parents would not like it. In our hospital we do not use that word anymore. It is outdated like many a word today.

if it wasnt used how are the kids to learn about it?

its called teaching

Araiwa, the survey went out to all the kids, not just the ones in the class. Feeding people inappropriate suggestions and pushing people into giving certain answers, some of which are discriminatory and offensive and then saying 'ha, you chose the wrong word! let's talk about what you should have said' isn't called teaching, it's called being short-sighted and irresponsible.

I'm glad you have faith that there's some higher and more meaningful purpose here, but the school really shouldn't be reinforcing this language, even if that is the case.

Surveymonkey lets you choose free text answer boxes, but appreciate the kids might not have been shown this in an attempt to keep things simple.

There were some free text answer boxes such as the one where you had to give your thoughts on depiction in media.

From what I gather (these surveys appear regularly from different students on a variety of subjects) it's independent research not a class project on a set subject.