I heard part of the issue was the voice actress thought Derpy was supposed to be male.
That is true. In fact, the original version of that scene was after the voice had been pitch-corrected in post-production to make her sound at least a little feminine.
Amy Keating Rogers, the head writer for that particular episode, had a well-thought-out reply to the whole fiasco which ended up on EqD. What I remember from it is that she has a mentally handicapped son, so the last thing she ever wanted to do was make fun of them. In her initial draft of the script, Derpy was named Ditzy—Amy switched at the request of some higher-up, as a favor to the bronies. If she had known beforehand that "derp" was considered a slur, the name Derpy would never have been used in the episode in the first place.
The most hilarious part of that fiasco was that they changed her eyes and voice back because she looked/sounded handicapped, and Hasbro later did a press release saying that the original scene "wasn't in line with the show's message of friendship".
Because as we all know, handicapped people don't deserve friendship.
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Because as we all know, handicapped people don't deserve friendship.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis