Two things here: First off, I tend to think of myself as handicapped. Not handicapped on an individual basis of self, as much as handicapped by the structuring of things which society on a whole has put in place. Handicaps exist everywhere for everyone in one form or another. My preference of the term handicap comes from the wanton usage of the word 'disabled'. Good lord! Disabled means something does not function, handicapped clearly indicated that there are ways to function and get through something, it is just a matter of figuring out how. My brother prefers the term handicapped as well. Maybe it is a generational or location thing or just how we view things for ourselves.
As to your assessment that people are not lacking but instead different, I need to quibble here on both parts. A deaf person or a blind person is not truely lacking. Is a person born without leg muscles lacking? How can they be lacking if they never had it? Again, it is only lacking if society or an individual says it is lacking, in which case it becomes a hinderance towards living life to its fullest potential.
When you use the word different, I must beg to differ. A deaf person is not different from others who are deaf. A mute is a mute is a mute and a room of 100 deaf mutes which is invaded by one hearing and vocally activated individual shows the deaf as not being different but rather the person subjected to sounds is the different one. A similar experiment could be conducted with blind persons, paraplegics, persons born with no limbs and other groups. Different is a societal term and one which disrupts harmony. If we as a people view others as different are we not perpetuating bias and separation>? Clearly if someone is viewed as different--in any way at all--then they are looked at as one who either needs and/or deserves special considerations or they are seen as an encumberance at some level.
Trust me on these things DC_Deep, I have both my own personal experience and that of those I have been at times close to, on which to draw. My sister Olivia was locked away supposedly for her own safety, but I to this day acertain that she was no different from anyone else. If she was, then so are we all since we are all technically individuals with out own minds and souls which on its own makes every last one of us different at the start. My brother was kept out of the public school system, even though he had learned to read and write both his letters and his numbers--the school felt he was different and as such would be a burden to whichever teacher and classroom got saddled with him. Different? Not if we didn't decide it to be the case.
Where society has erred, has been in the presentation of ideals. Society has decided that certain looks, educational standards, job placements, etc. are the normal and all that do not fall into those groups are different. That, is rubbish. Those who do not fall into groups are still people.
