I am serving on the Prince William Commission on Aging and also serve as the Board President of the Independence Empowerment Center-Center for Independent Living.  I am actively involved with the ADRC work both here in Virginia, and four other States I consult in with other entities. 

Virginia continues to delay deleting the term Mental Retardation (or its abbreviation) and not using Intellectual & Developmental Disability as noted by two previous commentors.  Developmental Disability is clearly defined in Section 102 of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance & Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C 15002). That definition also is comparative to one used for Intellectual Disabilities.  Additionally, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, in revising the rules under 24 CFR Parts 91, 576, 582, and 583 with relation to the 2009 HEARTH Act in order to define "Homeless", uses the terms "Developmental Disabilities" and "People with Disabilities" although the latter does not go in depth as to carryover Section 102 definition. 

Continuing to use the outdated term and trying to make MR and ID interchangeable is not in accordance with current Federal Law, and does not support the Consumer Directed and Person-Centered/Patient-Centered initiatives occuring in the Commonwealth. 

Stop and pause and consider:  If the Arc of Virginia and the various local Arcs are no longer using their beginning name of "Assocation of Retarded Citizens" and simply using "Arc", is it not time for the Commonwealth to consider removing a term with negative connotations?  I have not looked to see what impacts continued use of an outdated term would have in terms of Civil Rights, but a "label" that is outdated may be such an instance.