Well. My recent poll to removed and I received the private message, in which I was criticized fot the usage of the noun "invalid".

I looked up in my Oxford Encyclopedical Dictionary of English Language and noted that there is no derogatory meaning for this word in English language. If there were one then there would be derog. mark against it. It is just: invalid n - person weakened through illness or injury

It is not the first time when I am critcized for the word usage. For example, one person was visibly offended when I used the words black people and colored people.

Internet is the international system. How should I know that the words wheelchair bound are insulting for someone on the other side of the Earth?

For a person, who is not the native English speaker, it is very frustrating experince being ostracized for the "political incorrectness" of a used word.

What else should I know to avoid offending people? Are there other words?

As far as I know, any language has its own extremely complicated mechanisms of accepting and rejecting words. I do not think an opinionated people shall interfere in this matter.

Besides, I think there is nothing shameful for a person to move in a wheelchair and be an invalid. Anyone of us can become such a person in a fraction of a second.

If a persons spinal cord is damaged there is no other way to move or live. Mao Tse Doun said once: "Wisdom begins with accepting of the reality."

In my poll I just wanted to see the raw data of how many people, whom we know personally(!), were injured heavily or killed while riding a car, a bicycle, train, etc.

I do not trust much the official statistics. But such a poll would give the rough, but reallistic picture regarding the dangers & safety of different modes of transportation.

I agree that there are words, which shall not be used in a public forum. It is not difficult to program a filter in the forum, which would warn people against a derogatory word being used.

However I do not accept that a political correctness of a word in a particular country or region is being established as an international standard on the international computer network. It is not fair.