Lawmakers Promote Agency Name Change

By: Virginia Butler
Rochester YNN, November 28, 2009

Members of the Monroe County Legislature want the state to drop the word `retardation’ from a state agency name.

They want the name of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities to be changed to the Office of Developmental Disability Assistance.

The request comes after a county legislator was accused of using a slur against a colleague during a meeting earlier this year. The incident led to an outcry from disabilities advocacy groups.

Chris Hilderbrant from the Center for Disability Rights says the bill is significant progress toward learning from a bad experience.

“One of the other good aspects of this bill is that they were introduced with, I believe, unanimous bipartisan support that all 29 legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike are in support of these bills,” Hilderbrant said. “So that’s a good positive aspect from the outcome of the bad experience this summer, that we’ve been working closely with Mr. Quatro and Mr. Bronson to make these bills happen.”

The local bill is a largely symbolic gesture to show Monroe County’s support for a State Assembly bill proposing the name change.