Handicapped is an adjective used to refer to a person or animal who is partially disabled or unable to use a limb or limbs. The use of this term is sometimes considered offensive, though it is preferable to the derogatory term "cripple". (Note, however, that the term "cripple" is used specifically to refer to a horse unable to race). See disabled for a fuller explanation of the difference between an impairment, a disability and being handicapped.
Although handicapped is widely used in both law and everyday speech to refer to people having physical or mental disabilities, those described by the word tend to prefer the expressions disabled or people with disabilities.
Handicapped, a somewhat euphemistic term, may imply a helplessness that is not suggested by the more forthright disabled.
It is also felt that some stigma may attach to the word handicapped because of its origin in the phrase hand in cap, actually derived from a game of chance but sometimes mistakenly believed to involve the image of a beggar.
A handicapped worker is a person whose capabilities are limited in the performance of the tasks in a particular employment situation.
A handicapped worker has to be paid at least the minimum wage or a percentage thereof based on the extent to which a worker's performance is limited, but in no case may it fall below 50 percent of the minimum wage.
Where a handicapped person is now performing or is being considered for employment where he or she will perform work which is equal to work performed by a nonhandicapped person, such handicapped person shall be paid the same wage as a nonhandicapped person with similar experiences.
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