By Mike Ervin
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Jesse Jackson Jr. signed on. So did Democratic senate leader Emil Jones, state representative Judy Erwin, and Alderman Burton Natarus. Natarus even went so far as to submit an ordinance July 8 that, if passed by the City Council, would have made “Handicap Place” that stretch of Quincy’s honorary name. But there’s one problem. To many of the disabled folk whom the street is supposed to honor, Handicap Place is as insultingly anachronistic as Negro Way or Colored People Circle.
Rene David Luna, director of programs for Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago, an advocacy center for people with disabilities (full disclosure: I write their newsletter), explains why “handicapped” has been out of favor for more than a decade. In the newly industrialized Europe, Luna says, people with disabilities who had to beg on the streets because they couldn’t make a living as laborers were known as the handicapped. “It refers to the cap in hand. They would get a cigar box and put on a cap. When someone would come by they would hold out their cap and beg for change. Then they would put the change in the cigar box. ‘Handicapped’ conjures up images of pity, charity, and dependency.”
The letter says, “The street’s prospective name is complimentary of our forefathers’ blueprinted word–Handicap–signifying Alert!” And Donovan explains that this is supposed to mean that “handicapped” is the word government entities use to refer to people with disabilities–as in “handicapped” parking and entrance signs. “If someone says that’s the wrong word, then we’d better go around tearing down a lot of signs.”
Erwin wrote Natarus urging his support. When I made the Negro Way analogy to Erwin’s aide Suzanne Maso, she said, “I never thought about that. We were just trying to help out our constituents.”
