Most offensive disability-related words

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An interesting article from BBC on the usage of the word "mental": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-24282737

Just returned from Brazil today, and I am quite sure that the word often used for the handicapped there would not fly well in most of our other countries -- "deficientes".

How on earth can the phrase 'window licker' be considered 'the least offensive amongst disabled people' ? Anyone with half a brain in their heads would consider this phrase to be perhaps the most graphically disturbing description of someone with 'problems', that there is....

I have found that describing myself in public as 'mad' results in others giving me a wide berth.

F'rinstance - I was walking home recently (it's not far) from IKEA with a rolled-up mattress on my trolley.
The street ahead of me suddenly filled up with dignitaries, including one wearing a mayoral chain.
I couldn't be bothered crossing the road so just called out "Gangway - mad woman with mattress coming through!" And the pavement cleared like magic. :>D

I shall use it again. It works!

It wasn't until 2011 that the Spastic Centre (Australia) renamed itself The Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

The UK charity "the spastics society" changed their name to "scope" in the mid-1990s.
UK supermarket ASDA (part of the Walmart group) recently attracted criticism for marketing a "mental patient" Halloween outfit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24278768

I saw no fewer than two crazies on the metro today. I wonder what one would have to call them if the term "crazy" were banned. "I saw two potential candidates for psychiatric treatment on the metro today"?

I've never heard anyone refer to such people as "crazies". I have heard "crazy people".

I've heard "crazies" a lot. Not for people who are clearly mentally ill--someone having a chat with an invisible person, for instance. More for people acting strangely or obnoxiously. A religious fanatic shouting out bible verses. A group of tipsy teenagers who think it's funny to run up & hug strangers. Someone dressed really weird. There were a couple of crazies on the platform dancing to a polka on a boombox.

Haven't you run into "ignore the crazies" or "Don't engage the crazies," in reference to some sort of fanatics?