Dear Accessibility and Diversity Advocates:

We all are going to join the crowd sooner or later (is anyone getting any
younger?), so it is to our mutual benefit for each of us to ACT NOW to ensure
that the Library of Congress Cataloging Policy and Support Office does NOT
change the Library of Congress Subject Heading, as it plans to do in the VERY
NEAR FUTURE, from bad and offensive ["Handicapped"] to much worse and offensive
["Disabled persons"], but instead

TO: PEOPLE-FIRST language, the standard, acceptable terminology of U.S.
legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress, the very agency that LC CPSO serves,
from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and subsequent legislation,
and by amendment, legislation enacted prior to The A.D.A.:

People with disabilities     or           Individuals with disabilities

Thanks to ASCLA President Jerry Krois, ASCLA already has responded.  But
individual letters and e-mails, especially from self-identifying members of the
class with whom CPSO apparently did not consult about its decision, are very
much needed.

We are PEOPLE FIRST. We want and need PEOPLE-FIRST LANGUAGE! The new LC Subject
heading needs to be: "People with disabilities" or "Individuals with
disabilities."

Send your letter or e-mail NOW to:

Mr. Paul Weiss
Cataloging Policy and Support Office
The Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540

E-Mail: [log in to unmask]

Thank you, everyone in advance for your advocacy. If we do not advocate for
ourselves, who will?

Ellen Perlow
Chair, ALA ASCLA Century Scholarship Committee
The ALA ASCLA Century Scholarship Diversity Initiative
"Celebrating a New Century that Celebrates Diversity"
http://www.ala.org/ascla/centuryscholarship.html
Annual Submission Deadline: March 1
Have YOU recruited/applied to be a Century Scholarship applicant today?
A for Accessibility: Positive Wins Every Time
----------------------------------------------------
Manager of Information Services
School of Library and Information Studies
Texas Woman's University
P.O. Box 425438
Denton, TX 76204-5438
Tel.: 940-898-2622  Fax: 940-898-2611
Web: http://twu.edu/~s_perlow/
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]