Read the following text and find a suitable heading for each paragraph, then work with the Reading
comprehension sheet.



                              Dealing With People Who Have a Handicap


1

The word "handicapped" is today's buzzword to label those who have a physical disability. The word
came from the Old English "cap in hand," as referring to the beggars and disabled who would sit on
the city streets and beg with their cap in hand. I have heard people say: he is schizophrenic, he
is mentally ill, or he is a cripple. Would we say he is measles, he is mumps, or he is chicken pox?
We don't define people by their diseases; neither is it right to define people by their handicaps.
A person may "have" a handicap but that doesn't make him a handicap. "He is handicapped" defines a
person by his disability; while saying "He has a handicap" allows him to be more than "crippled."


2

People with a disability like to think of themselves as mainly normal. So just because you look
like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, doesn’t mean you want to be confined to a tower
ringing bells. If a person is mainly normal, he or she likes to be treated normally—like anyone
else. One time I was horrified by a man who had no legs, no arms, and was blind. Then I heard him
read by passing his lips over raised Braille words. That man did more to change my attitude than
any other person.


3

People with a disability usually like to do things for themselves, if they can. There may be some
exceptions to this rule, but not from me. If I need help, I ask for it: “Could you please reach
that shelf for me?” And then I say, “Thank you so much for helping.” Sometimes a person rushes over
when I am doing something and offers to help me. I usually say, “Thank you very much, but I can do
it.” On occasions I let them help me when I could do it, just to make them feel better.


4

The quickest way to make a handicap worse is to be pushed around in a wheelchair and waiting for a
help from the others. Usually a person needs the exercise of pushing himself and the stretch of
reaching for things. Do not take away the independence of people with a handicap. If it is at all
possible, let them do it themselves.


5

People with a handicap sometimes experience quite a bit of pain; I know I do. Pain makes you
complain about it and sometimes creates a frown on your face. I have a prejudice: I don’t like it
when people say to me, “Smile, it can’t be all that bad.” What do they know. On occasions, it is
all that bad. Of course, I smile and say, “Thank you for reminding me.” Inside I say, “I wonder if
you would be smiling if you were in my condition?”


6

Always value a person’s personality, character, spiritual acumen, and mental ability in the first
place. A person with a handicap is first of all a “person” and needs to be defined that way rather
than by a deficiency.


Headings

A Don't lecture people with a handicap on how they should be unless you really know how they are.

B Offer help only when it’s really necessary.

C Treat people with a handicap as other “ordinary” people.
D Avoid humiliating terminology.

E Don’t make people with a handicap dependent on you.

F Don’t talk to them about their handicap.

G Put your evaluation priorities on something higher than a physical disability.


Vocabulary appearing in the article:

buzzword – módní slovo, trendy výraz                                to label - označit, pojmenovat,
dát nálepku

refer to sth. – vztahovat se k čemu, týkat se čeho             beg – žebrat, beggar – žebrák

measles – spalničky                     mumps – příušnice                       chicken pox – plané
neštovice