[33girl]

Honestly, just in a pure word dissection sense, I personally think disabled is more offensive than handicapped. "Dis" has negative connotations in any word it's attached to - that's a pretty basic thing that anyone picks up on, and I'm guessing someone just learning English would agree.

Or maybe we should be saying "differently abled" or "handi-capable." Those were around when my mom was still living and if anyone had actually used them on her, she would have probably said (paraphrasing) "I'm not differently abled, you idiot - I'm in a @#$%ing wheelchair."