(dĭs-āˈbəld)
adjective- Inoperative: a disabled vehicle.
- Impaired, as in physical functioning: a disabled veteran; disabled children.
noun (used with a pl. verb) Physically impaired people considered as a group: the physically disabled.
Usage Note: Disabled is the clear preference in contemporary American English in referring to people having either physical or mental impairments, with the impairments themselves preferably termed
disabilities. Handicapped—a term derived from the world of sports gambling—is still in wide use but is sometimes taken to be offensive, while more recent coinages such as
differently abled or
handicapable have been generally perceived as condescending euphemisms and have gained little currency. • The often-repeated recommendation to put the person before the disability would favor
persons with disabilities over
disabled persons and
person with paraplegia over
paraplegic. Such expressions are said to focus on the individual rather than on the particular functional limitation. Respect for the preferences of this group calls for observing this rule, especially in formal contexts, but the “person-first” construction has not found wide acceptance with the general public, perhaps because it sounds somewhat unnatural or possibly because in English the last word in a phrase tends to have the greatest weight, thus undercutting the intended purpose. See Usage Note at
handicapped.
