This article analyzes the question of the usage of the descriptive phrase žmogus su negalia and its syntactic competitors. The origin and spread of the phrase žmogus su negalia and variations of its evaluation by the language norm is discussed. Data that was collected from the Corpus of Modern Lithuanian Language, other sources of various functional styles, and a survey shows the real usage of the language components that describe people with disabilities. The research analyzes the correctness of the various language examples and problematic cases of usage are explicitly discussed. This article questions the causes and validity of the change of the level of correctness of the phrase žmogus su negalia.