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Cripple
Also written: Crip, Crippled
rejected-labelableist-languagereclaimed-in-community
At a glance
Source-by-source
“Avoid using "cripple" as either a noun or verb unless you are describing the "crip" movement or if it's in a direct quote.”
The NCDJ advises against using "cripple" as noun or verb, with two exceptions: describing the "crip" movement and direct quotation. Its background note records that some disability activists have reclaimed the word — adopting hashtags like #criplit and #cripthevote — while others reject it outright, so the recommendation tracks self-identification within the community rather than a blanket ban.
“"Cripple" is another word that historically refers to a disability and is now considered a slur. Instead of saying someone or something is "crippled," try "held back." (Avoid "hamstrung" which is a reference to the horrific practice of mutilating a person or animal.)”
Sierra Club treats "cripple" as a slur rooted in disability and flags the metaphorical use ("the governor is crippled by...") as the common failure mode, suggesting "held back" instead. It separately warns off the near-synonym "hamstrung."
“Use of pictorial metaphors, negativistic terms, and slurs … cripple … person with a physical disability”
The APA places "cripple" in the avoid column of its table headed "Use of pictorial metaphors, negativistic terms, and slurs," pairing it with "person with a physical disability" as the suggested alternative. The same row group lists "invalid" and "gimp" as further terms to avoid.
“Avoid: although some disability activists have reclaimed the terms, to ensure respect, allies and those without disabilities should not use them out of respect”
The Movement Strategy Center lists "Cripple/Crip" in its Disability avoid table but qualifies the entry: some disability activists have reclaimed the terms, and the caution is specifically for allies and people without disabilities, who should not use them.
Audience notes
- Journalists and editors
- Treat "cripple" (noun or verb) as a slur in copy and headlines. The NCDJ carves out two exceptions: direct quotes and coverage of the reclaimed "crip" movement. Watch the metaphorical use most of all — "crippled by debt," "a crippling blow" — which Sierra Club flags as the easiest slip; rewrite to "held back" or something more specific.
- Allies and people without disabilities
- Both the NCDJ and the Movement Strategy Center make the same call: "crip" has been reclaimed inside the disability community, but reclamation is for members, not allies. If you don't identify as disabled, don't use the term — including in solidarity contexts — unless you are quoting or naming someone's own self-description.
- Disability activists and community writers
- Self-identification governs. The corpus records active reclamation (#criplit, #cripthevote, "crip linguist") alongside writers who reject the word for themselves. None of the sources tells community members how to identify; the avoid guidance is aimed outward at non-disabled use.
Synthesis
All four sources agree on the surface — “cripple” is not a word to reach for —
but two of them decline to call it a simple avoid. The National Center on
Disability and Journalism and the Movement Strategy Center both record that
disability activists have reclaimed “crip,” and both draw the line at who is
doing the using rather than at the word itself. The NCDJ allows it for the
“crip” movement and in direct quotes; the Movement Strategy Center spells out
that “allies and those without disabilities should not use them.” Sierra Club
and the APA treat it more flatly as a slur to avoid. The APA files it under
“pictorial metaphors, negativistic terms, and slurs” with “person with a
physical disability” as the replacement; Sierra Club pairs the slur judgment
with practical metaphor swaps (“held back,” not “crippled”).
The divergence is over how much room to leave for reclamation. The
journalism-facing and movement-facing guides (NCDJ, MSC) center the
in-community reclamation explicitly; the broader equity guides (Sierra Club,
APA) write for a general audience and don’t carve it out. The difference is
about audience, not disagreement. Every source agrees that a non-disabled
writer using “cripple” in their own voice is doing something wrong, and every
source defers, implicitly or explicitly, to how disabled people identify
themselves.
The treatment is stable across the corpus’s range. The NCDJ (2021) already
documents the reclamation alongside the slur judgment Sierra Club (2021)
renders; the APA (2023) and Movement Strategy Center (2024) carry the same
shape forward. The NCDJ’s background note traces the longer arc: the word
turned offensive in the early 20th century, was displaced by “handicapped” and
then “disabled,” and has more recently been partially reclaimed under “crip.”
Audience notes
See the structured audience notes above: journalists should treat the word as
a slur with narrow quote/movement exceptions and watch the metaphor trap;
allies and non-disabled writers should not use “crip” even in solidarity; and
community writers retain reclamation under their own self-identification.
Related terms