Handicapped verses Disabled

In addition to writing for the DBTAC Southwest ADA Center, I also have a show on public access TV and produce DVD’s. When writing for the DBTAC, I use the term disabled or disability because “disability” is pervasive in the Americans with Disabilities Act. In my TV show and on my DVD’s I never use the word disabled. Instead, I say “people who are just a little bit different”. You can call me a little different or even handicapped but don’t ever call me disabled.

What does this have to do with employment for persons with disabilities? Plenty. It has to do with how employers view us. Disabled means unable or not able. Do we want to be known as people who are unable? I don’t think so. From Answers.com, the word “handicapped is best reserved to describe a disabled person who is unable to function owing to some property of the environment. Thus people with a physical disability requiring a wheelchair may or may not be handicapped, depending on whether wheelchair ramps are made available to them.” Given that’s true, why even mention someone is disabled? Are you following me? If a friend calls me tomorrow morning and asks me to join her for lunch there is absolutely no reason in the world my handicap or disability needs to be an issue. That’s because I live in the third most accessible city in the Country and can use accessible main line busses. If I live in some metropolitan area that doesn’t have accessible busses but instead has a para-transit system, then I would be handicapped because the system doesn’t allow for someone to call in whenever they need a ride. Instead, they have to call for a ride at least a day ahead of time and often 10 days ahead of time. Therefore, I can be handicapped by my environment, or liberated by it. If I have a disability, or are unable, I am always unable regardless of my environment. Now are you following me?

The subtleties of syntax can be mind boggling so let me take this approach. If an employer always hears that someone is unable, why would he hire him? If, on the other hand, he understands that a person’s ability is a function of his environment, why wouldn’t he make his office the most conducive to working and hire people with physical impairments?

Language is very important. According to George Orwell, If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. In other words, if we tell society we are disabled or unable, that’s the way we’ll be viewed and, ultimately treated. From another historical perspective, Mohandas Gandhi said A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers. If this so, then the pervasive use of disabled has set us back 35 years.

Why do we then refer to ourselves as unable? It may be because we don’t have a suitable alternative. The word handicap was not used because it is alleged that the word handicap came from 'cap in hand' and referred to the physically disabled's need to subsist as beggars in times past. This, however, is another urban legend, nothing can be further from the truth.

A study in etymology will give us the answer. A visit to SNOPES.com yields the following information (much of it copied directly from that page):

Handicap didn't pick up its 'physical disability' meaning until 1915 yet the word was in existence in 1653. The etymology quoted above which ties the word to 'cap in hand' is false; 'cap in hand' came into being via a different route, whereas handicap began as a shortening of 'hand in cap,' which is the other way around from what this fanciful tale would have us believe. Those having momentary trouble grasping the importance of the term's reversal should spend a moment contemplating the difference between 'cathouse' and 'housecat.'

The evolution of handicap to include its 'physical disability' meaning took place over a number of centuries, with roots in a lottery game from the 1600s called ‘hand-in-cap’. See SNOPES for an explanation of the game. Over time, the name of this game became shortened from hand-in-cap to hand i'cap, then handicap.

Once again, the use of the word expanded -- handicap grew from being strictly a sporting term to cascade into the mainstream of the language. Divorced of its gaming associations, it came to mean 'a physical limitation,' an extension of its 'impediment' meaning.
A simple timeline of the word's development:

First seen in 1653, where it refers to the lottery game described at SNOPES.com.
Sightings of it from 1754 show it used to describe horse races where the superior beast is made to carry extra weight to equalize the field.
By 1883, it has leaked from the sporting world into the mainstream of language, referring then to the larger concept of equalization itself.
The first use of the word in conjunction with the disabled appears in 1915, when it is applied to physically crippled children.
By the 1950s the term handicapped is extended to also cover adults and the mentally disabled.

At no point in the word's history does 'cap in hand' surface. As stated above, it developed by a different route. It also means something entirely different.

'Cap in hand' comes to us from the custom of uncovering the head as a sign of reverence, respect, or courtesy. Its earliest sighting dates to 1565 where it referred to a show of subservience made to a judge. Nowadays 'cap in hand' has dropped its original meaning of 'a sign of reverence, respect, or courtesy' and has solely come to mean 'to humbly seek a favor.' (One is said to go 'cap in hand' to one's boss when asking for a raise, for instance).

I don’t know why some choose to believe the Urban Legend that handicap has ties to the disabled formally having to subsist as beggars, but this legend, as many urban legends are hard to die. The important thing is even though we are called disabled (unable), we are far from it. We need to let employers, and society in general, know our short comings can be ameliorated by technology and environmental changes AND that we are eager to work.

About the author

Gene Rodgers Photo Gene Rodgers has been a quadriplegic since age 17. Since then he has earned several college degrees, worked in several states, earned a Switzer Fellowship, and now works as a private contractor.