By Catia Malaquias
Ableism is prejudice against people with disability.
The R-Word, “ret**d”, is just one of many ableist slurs against people with intellectual disability – that are regularly thrown around in the media, particularly social media, to insult a person (usually not disabled). Other ableist slurs include ‘moron’, ‘idiot’ and ‘imbecile’.
These words come from the early – mid 1900s, from the eugenics movements and the institutionalising of people with disability – being used to label and categorise people with intellectual disability, including Down syndrome, based on the degree of their perceived intellectual delay and impairment.
From those dark times – the legacy of these words stubbornly endures in contemporary language as ableist slurs and insults, reinforcing ableism – prejudice against people with disability – and the general dehumanisation and devaluation of people with intellectual disability.
Language matters. Words matter.
While the use of the R-Word had started to decrease, with increased community awareness of its harmful effects for people with disability, it never disappeared – and there is now evidence of its unfortunate recent resurgence as an insult. Further, while the R-Word, the most offensive, has been the predominant focus of education campaigns, the use of other ableist slurs (like ‘moron’) have persisted, effectively as (misperceived) ‘softer’ substitutes for the R-Word.
All ableist slurs are offensive and damaging to people with disability – whether directed at a person with disability or not. But apologies for use of the R-Word are rarely given – and when given are not to the disability community.
The classic apology for using the R-Word is usually given in the faceless and targetless abstract – “to anyone who may have been offended“. That is not good enough and does not do enough to educate others. Any genuine apology for the use of the R-Word, or another ableist slur, should be expressly given to people with disability, particularly people with intellectual disability.
John Franklin Stephens, an advocate with Down syndrome, explained to the Huffington Post:
“… THE R-WORD HURTS. You don’t have to aim the word directly at me to hurt me and millions of others like me who live with an intellectual disability. Every time a person uses the r-word, no matter who it is aimed at, it says to those who hear it that it is okay to use it. That’s how a slur becomes more and more common. That’s how people like me get to hear it over and over, even when you think we aren’t listening.
So, why am I hurt when I hear ‘retard’. … At best, it is used as another way of saying ‘stupid’ or ‘loser’. At worst, it is aimed directly at me as a way to label me as an outcast – a thing, not a person. I am not stupid. I am not a loser. I am not a thing. I am a person.
It hurts me to think that people assume that I am less than a whole person. That is what is so awful about slurs. They are intended to make their target seem smaller, less of a person. People who live with an intellectual disability do not have an easy life. We have to fight to understand what the rest of you take for granted. We fight for education. We fight to live among the rest of you. We struggle to make friends. We often are ignored, even when we have something to say. We fight so hard to be seen as whole people. It hurts so much after all that struggle, to hear you casually use a term that means you assume we are less than whole.”
Coordown, Italy’s national Down syndrome association, and the New York-based creative agency, SMALL’s, continued collaboration has produced another viral, humorous and effective social media campaign for World Down Syndrome Day, 21 March 2026.
The campaign, named ‘Just Evolve’, asks people to update their language and to leave ableist slurs – particularly the R-Word – to history. The protagonist in the video, Noah Matthews Matofsky, a 19-year-old English actor with Down syndrome, intervenes in the casual use of the R-Word during a dinner to insult a non-disabled guest struggling to open a jar. Noah explains the harmful consequences of the word for people with Down syndrome and, in encouraging the dinner party to ‘evolve’, highlights other things that have been left to history (such a washing clothes in urine, mouse hair eyebrows and putting animals on trial). The campaign adopts a humorous style—reminiscent of Horrible Histories for those familiar with the popular books and television series—to convey a serious message. The humour is not intended to diminish the issue, but rather to disarm audiences and create space for reflection and learning at a time when discussions about language are often met with resistance framed as opposition to “language policing” or censorship.
Martina Fuga, President of Coordown, notes that “90% of the time people use these words … not to directly offend people with disabilities … [but] … when disability is used as an insult, as a metaphor to degrade … or to make people laugh … this has consequences: it reinforces stereotypes, legitimises discrimination, and makes full participation in social life more difficult, if not impossible.”
The “Just Evolve” campaign is supported with the contribution of a number associations worldwide, including Australian organisations The Achieve Foundation, the AOJ Woods Foundation and Down Syndrome Australia.
See previous Starting With Julius blogs relating to the use of the R-Word and ableist slurs:
“R-word: No Excuses but if You’re Sorry Make Your Apology Count”
“Why Heath Shaw’s Apology for Using the R-word Misses the Mark”
“Bubbles, Planes and Prejudice”
“Usefulness is Not a Measure of Human Worth”
[Cover photo © CoorDown]
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