Sleepyblueocean In fact I have heard a renowned Consultant/Professor ask his patient how much of a handicap his problem is and what could be done to alleviate the burden of handicap!
I think you are thinking of the word in a different way. I never use it as a label for a person. I have never done so in fact. It is used concerning how one gets on with life. For example, after a head injury, there can be multiple "losses of function" -that is a medical or science term, not what I'd say in the clinic. So, working with the patient, we try to get their life back together the way they want to as far as we can. This means we don't always do the same thing for everybody. One person wants to address one thing first, another hates not being able to do something else. The word handicap comes in here because the person describes the problems they are having in terms of the way the problems handicap them when they want to do something, so we try to find ways of addressing their aims, providing equipment, building computer programmes, therapies and so on which reduce that handicap in as many ways as we can (reducing pain, making movement easier, giving more strength, learning a different way of doing it because the brain can't do it the old way..).So it's the "handicap" that is preventing the person getting back to doing what they love to do, which we attack from all sides to reduce as much as possible. It is a long road and not always possible but a lot can be done..
I hope this helps you see that the word is not used as a general term under which people are put any more, Heaven Forbid! It applies to the problems that a person confronts when they have had, say, an accident, and are unable to just do something they automatically could do before. E.g., I am disabled and cannot walk very far. (this is true by the way). My handicap is that when I stand or walk I get a lot of pain. So if the pain can be addressed, i.e. if I can be treated at my level of handicap - the bit that affects my life - then my life will be better. However this might not be the same as treating my disease by repairing broken bits for example - that is not possible in fact. Treating the disease is higher up on the International Classification of Diseases system, at the physical or cellular level.
I do hope this helps. I should have realised that people would think I meant the awful old fashioned way of using the word! I have been in a scientific environment too long maybe! But please do not fear, we are all on the side of the person with the problems, we don't even call them patients as much as we used to because we are in it together, more like partners in a problem solving situation.