IN T ELLECTUAL AND D EVELOPMENTAL D ISABILITIES V OLUME 45,.pdfVIP

INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES VOLUME 45, NUMBER 2: 116–124 APRIL 2007 Perspectives The Renaming of Mental Retardation: Understanding the Change to the Term Intellectual Disability Robert L. Schalock, Ruth A. Luckasson, and Karrie A. Shogren, With Sharon Borthwick-Duffy, Val Bradley, Wil H. E. Buntinx, David L. Coulter, Ellis (Pat) M. Craig, Sharon C. Gomez, Yves Lachapelle, Alya Reeve, Martha E. Snell, Scott Spreat, Marc J. Tasse´, James R. Thompson, Miguel A. Verdugo, Michael L. Wehmeyer, and Mark H. Yeager Introduction and Overview shift is the understanding that this term covers the same population of individuals who were diagnosed There is considerable and intense discussion in previously with mental retardation in number, kind, the field of intellectual disability/mental retardation level, type, and duration of the disability and the about the construct of disability, how intellectual need of people with this disability for individualized disability fits within the general construct of dis- services and supports. Furthermore, every individual ability, and the use of the term intellectual disability who is or was eligible for a diagnosis of mental re- (Glidden, 2006; Greenspan, 2006; MacMillan, Sip- tardation is eligible for a diagnosis of intellectual erstein, Leffert, 2006; Schalock Luckasson, disability. 2004; Switzky Greenspan, 2006b). This discus- In addition, in this article we explore why the sion is occurring within the context of competing field is shifting to the term intellectual disability. In- world views of the philosophical and epistemolog- creased understanding is based on a