Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Tony 19630324]

Hi,

Can you tell me what's the difference between "the handicapped" and "the disabled"?

Thanks.

[timtom]

In common usage there are no differences in the words, they both describe the same set of people. Handicapped is probably more popular because it doesn't sound as harsh, so it is less likely to set of the small number of disgruntled handicapped people who actually care (while most probably could care less which word you use because they don't hate life).

[Jintii]

As Timtom said, they have the same meaning. However, at least in the United States, handicapped is actually not as acceptable today as disabled. You will still see both words, but disabled is more widely used nowadays. (A quick Google search of each term will bear this out: about 36 million hits for handicapped and over 300 million for disabled.)

But let me give you a third option, too. The current preferred form is:
person/people/individuals with a disability. This puts the emphasis on the person instead of on the disability.

I hope that helps you.

[redset]

Also, 'handicapped' can be used in other situations where a person's ability is limited in some way, like if you were rushing through an airport but you had a lot of heavy bags to carry