
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994                   TAG: 9408250094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                                 LENGTH: Medium

DISABLED-ADVOCACY GROUP BALKS AT BOOK

A woman who has been handicapped since contracting polio when she was less than a month old worked with her 10-year-old son to write and illustrate a book about her condition.

But although Barbara Brabham is donating proceeds from sales of the $17.95 hardcover book to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, she said the organization has backed off an agreement to promote the work.

The reason, Brabham said, is that the book's title, ``My Mom is Handicapped,'' uses a word that some people consider derogatory to people with disabilities. She disagrees.

Children ``don't understand the phrase `physically challenged,' and `disabled' sounds worse,'' said Brabham, a reading specialist at Deep Creek High School. ``The word `disabled' is a little offensive to me. Why do they have to tell me what I am? Why are they labeling me?''

The book was released last month by Cornerstone Publishing of Virginia Beach.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association, while wishing Brabham the best of luck with her book, believes the project is hers, not the organization's.

Marilyn Richardson, the local MDA manager, said Brabham can call herself anything she likes, but the association considers ``handicapped'' a dated term.

Brabham, 42, has a neuromuscular degeneration similar to certain types of muscular dystrophy. She can walk with a leg brace and crutches but also uses a wheelchair.

She decided to donate the book's proceeds to the MDA because researchers have identified a muscular dystrophy gene and are close to finding a cure for various types of the illness, she said.

Disabled people historically have been described in ``tremendously negative terms,'' said Richard DiPeppe, an official with the Endependence Center, a housing and employment program in Norfolk for the disabled.

Today, he said, the emphasis is on seeing a disabled person first as a person, then as someone with a disability.

``We personally don't care what people call themselves,'' DiPeppe said.

Brabham, her husband, David, and son, Caleb, had planned to appear on the MDA's annual Labor Day Telethon but have decided not to. Still, they plan to donate proceeds from the book's first printing of 500 copies to the organization.

``I don't want to hurt anyone, but I have to take a stand,'' Brabham said. ``I wouldn't have written a harmful book.''

by CNB