New rules which were proposed in January 2013 will officially change listing 12.05 from mental retardation to intellectual disability effective August 31, 2013 according to Nebraska disability lawyer, Timothy Cuddigan. In 2010 Congress passed Rosa's law which changed references in Federal laws from a mentally retarded individual to an individual with an intellectual disability. However, according to Social Security, this law did not specifically require its change for either Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In response to its notice of proposed rule making SSA received many comments from advocacy organizations in support of the change in terminolgy. Many people commented the term retarded and mentally retarded has extremely negative connotations. This change will remove the term mental retardation and add in its place intellectual disability.
