A friend of mine has been handicapped since childhood and he refers to himself as such. The people he knows also refer to themselves as such (yes I asked him).
I understand what people are trying to do...by taking away the word to which a certain stigma is attached people hope the stigma will be erased...but it doesn't work that way.
Now that I find interesting.
I am deaf in my left ear. (childhood scarlet fever.)
I am not hard-of-hearing, I am deaf in one ear.
So I have a disability.
I refuse to let my disability be a handicap.
In my youth I studied music and did concert work. Always right on pitch, too!
As a reporter I had a reputation for *the *most *accurate quotes and on several occasions my accuracy was tested by making tapes. I was spot on. So there! (ranting on ...) (Probably because I paid attention!)
My disability is annoying sometimes and inconvenient sometimes too, but *not a handicap.
Deafness is sometimes called "the silent disability" or "the unseen disability." You'll note, not handicap!
OED says (4th) a handicap is an encumberance or hinderance.
OED says disability is a lack of the ability to do something.
My deafness is an inability to hear in my left ear.
So I have a disability, not a handicap because I don't let it be!
(/rant & /rave)
