Special Olympics battles R-word with yellow cards

Yellow cards will be handed out on the streets of P.E.I. Thursday, a reminder from the Special Olympics about how words can hurt.

It's part of an awareness campaign to help eliminate the use of the word r--ard, a word sometimes used to describe people with an intellectual disability, or as a general insult.

The Yellowcard Day campaign was started by a not-for-profit group called motionball that raises awareness and money for the Special Olympics Canada Foundation.

"A warning card in soccer is kind of a yellow card so they wanted to come up with some way to raise awareness about the use of the R-word and how we can remove it from, basically, from our vocabularies," said Charity Sheehan, executive director of Special Olympics P.E.I.

The word can bring up memories of being bullied and demeaned for Special Olympians.

When asked about the origin of the term Sheehan explained, "It is a medical terminology, so it comes from the medical term mental retardation and I think over the years people have taken a spin on that and ... taken it out of context and really used it to be a derogatory term that's hurtful."

Special Olympics Canada has teamed up with motionball and the Canadian chiefs of police to help get the message out.

Police departments across the country will be handing out yellow cards to the public Thursday.

Sheehan says she believes the R-word is being used less these days, but says if it's used at all, that's too often.

People can take a pledge online saying they won't use the word and share the information on social media with the hashtag #nogoodway.