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I wonder if the airline employee even knew any better. Perhaps English is not their first language, and they struggled to find the right word. Maybe the real culprit is Google Translate.
When used in conjunction with deaf, the meaning of dumb is pretty clear. It was surely easier to write on the tag than "hearing and speech impaired".
For many people, the words “deaf” and “hard of hearing” are not negative. Instead, the term “hearing-impaired” is viewed as negative. The term focuses on what people can’t do. It establishes the standard as “hearing” and anything different as “impaired,” or substandard, hindered, or damaged. It implies that something is not as it should be and ought to be fixed if possible.
Just because someone is deaf and mute, doesn't mean they get to overreact and try to gouge the airline. The person who wrote the text just used archaic language that is no longer considered pc, but doesn't mean they intended to hurt feelings.
Archaic, perhaps. But still a proper usage. UNTIL somebody takes offense.
Which, of course, somebody did.
It was inevitable.
Keep in mind, YOUR day may very well come! Whether you will be the offender or the offendee, nobody knows.
Good luck.
Just because someone is deaf and mute, doesn't mean they get to overreact and try to gouge the airline. The person who wrote the text just used archaic language that is no longer considered pc, but doesn't mean they intended to hurt feelings.
Agreed. I understand the customer being offended. Demanding a employee's termination is taking it too far. Somebody made a good-faith, if insensitive, effort to make sure you were contacted in a manner that you could understand. Consider both halves of the situation and get over yourselves. If you're truly, deeply offended, then vote with your feet* and use another airline in the future. But if you go through life with skin that thin,* you may find there's nobody who is worthy of your patronage and every experience is destined to be miserable.
*I'm sure I've offended people who are missing one or both feet who feel I'm trying to disenfranchise them. Also, there's probably a group of people with a real affliction of the skin being too thin whom I've offended as well. If so, I'm sorry....kind of.
Apparently "deaf and dumb" filed to cover the situation. The baggage handler should have added "hypersensitive greedy whiners" but he couldn't know that. I smell a greedy skunk of a shyster lawyer all over this fiasco.
Dumb thing is to get upset about a note like that. Some weak-minded people just want an excuse to be outraged and get their 5 minutes of fame. In the context used "dumb" refers simply to someone that can't speak. Used for decades, nothing insulting about it.
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