Ohio law is peppered with outdated terms such as lunatics, mentally retarded, and habitual drunkard words that two legislators are pushing to strike from the Ohio Revised Code.
Democrat Dontavius Jarrells and Republican Tom Young are co-sponsoring House Bill 281, which is pending in the House Health Committee.
The 819-page bill would change 33 derogatory terms and replace them with people first language and new terms. For example, deaf and dumb would be replaced with deaf, crippled child would be replaced with child with a disability and handicapped parking would be changed to accessible parking. This bill is a massive bill because of the prevalence of these terms in the code, Jarrells said.