User talk:Kith51

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Wheelchair terminology
Hello, thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. I noticed your changes of the term "confined to a wheelchair" to "uses a wheelchair" in numerous articles. While I believe I understand your motivation for these edits and sympathize with your concerns, the change in wording drastically changes the meaning. Someone who merely "uses" a wheelchair, such as those with limited mobility, does not necessarily use one most or all of the time and is not necessarily immobile without one, and that is the meaning the term "confined" is intended to communicate in the instances in which it has been used. This is particularly true in articles about fictional subjects. We can discuss a substitute term that carries the same connotations as "confined," but "used" is not adequate. It would probably also be best if you were to set forth and discuss in some general public forum your documented sources establishing that "confined" is generally regarded to be unsuitable or insensitive, before you take it upon yourself to remove the phrase from multiple articles. Please also refrain from changing the language where it is part of a quotation, as you did here. Fidelity to the quoted source must always trump other concerns. I will watch your talk page for your further thoughts. Cheers, postdlf (talk) 00:45, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Response
You're absolutely right about the quotation and fidelity to the quoted source. Sorry about that.

As for the rest of it, the disability community as a group disagrees with you and I (an able-bodied person) am in agreement with them. "Confined to a wheelchair" is a pejorative phrase implying that the person is somehow less of a person; "uses a wheelchair" is true both of people who need one for all mobility (like one good friend of mine) and people who need one sometimes for mobility but can also transfer or walk short distances. I'll be careful about quotations, but otherwise I'll keep making the change.