My friend, Rosa.

Many people don't even know anything about a new bill that passed and has now been signed into law by President Obama


Rosa's Law. President Barack Obama publicly honored Rosa Marcellino at the White House Friday, days after signing a bill carrying her name which will strip the term “mental retardation” from some areas of federal law.

The measure known as Rosa’s Law will replace the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” with “intellectual disability” and “individual with an intellectual disability” throughout federal health, education and labor policy. It was introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., after she met Marcellino, 9, and her family who lobbied for a similar bill in Maryland last year.

On Friday, Marcellino, who has Down syndrome, attended a ceremony in the East Room of the White House with her family where the president referred to her as “inspiring.”

I am totally infatuated with the idea of the term "Mental Retardation" being removed from my son's IEP and federal legislature as well as my son's health records; and "Intellectual Disability" being used in place.

So, what's the big deal with mental retardation? After all, it is a medical term. Well, to me, using mental retardation or even just retardation (retarded) hangs heavily with negative connotation. In short, I relate MR (and any form of it) with negativity. Stupid. Imbecile. Dumb. Incapable of achieving knowledge.

Intellectual disability or cognitive disability, to me, does not have that connotation. The word intellect is defined as: the power of knowing as distinguished from the power to feel and to will : the capacity for knowledge and/or the capacity for rational or intelligent thought especially when highly developed. You see intellectual implies my son has smarts and is capable; which is entirely true.
Now, disability is defined as: a disqualification, restriction, or disadvantage. And while I don't like to see it in black & white; that definition of disability is pretty much spot on.

My son has an intellectual disability; he has the capacity for knowledge but, because of the Down syndrome, he is at a disadvantage for obtaining that knowledge. He is disadvantaged because society does not believe in him. He is disadvantaged because schools want to segregate him because they don't know how to teach him alongside his peers (well, more like they don't want to do that because it rarely has been done). He is disadvantaged because he learns differently (and what two kids learn the same anyways).

Now, we just need for Merriam-Webster to give us a definition for intellectual disability because, as of now, there is no literal definition for this term...I am guessing that will change soon as this "new" term will soon be signed into law and change wording for many things in my son's life. But, even if they don't give it a definition, I already know what it means for us.

So, now you know a little about Rosa's law. :)