What Is Disability

Depending on where you are, and who you ask, you may get different answers to the question “what is disability.” 

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines disability as a mental or physical impairment impacting one or more daily life activities.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) defines it as a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with various barriers, may impact your participation in society on an equal basis with others .

The Social Security Act

The U.S. Social Security Act says that it is a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that is expected to last more than 12 months or result in death and that makes it impossible for the individual to engage in substantial gainful activity. 

So what’s going on?

These varying definitions show that disability is a real physical or mental phenomenon that is also partially a social construction. The specifics, such as whether the condition has to be medically determined, whether it must be long-term or can be temporary, whether activities of daily living include involuntary functions like processing insulin, and whether it exists by itself or in relation to social barriers depend on the context.

Seven Types of Disability

We will consider seven different types of disability, though thinking about disability within these categories may not always be helpful. You may find that certain disabilities fit into multiple categories. In other cases, individuals will present with multiple disabilities.

1. People with physical disabilities experience impairments that impact movement, both the ability to walk as well as other motor functions like writing. It may include a complete inability to walk, but it can also include a partial inability to walk, or mere difficulty with long distances. Examples include cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury or muscular dystrophy.
2. People with auditory disabilities experience varying levels of difficulty hearing, from complete deafness to partial hearing loss. Changes in technology and culture have resulted in a greater number of individuals using cochlear implants or hearing aids. Some are signers, others are oral, and others are a mix.
3. People with visual disabilities experience varying levels of vision loss. Some are completely blind while most possess some residual vision. People who are blind or low vision may have conditions like glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa or Usher syndrome.
4. People with chronic health disabilities experience limits in different areas of bodily function. Common examples of chronic health disabilities include diabetes, Crohn’s disease, kidney disease or long covid.
5. People with learning disabilities encounter varying difficulties with the learning process, though they are able to master intellectual skills. Examples include ADHD, dyslexia or dysgraphia.
6. People with mental health disabilities can experience difficulties in regulating behaviors, mood or emotional states. Examples of mental health disabilities include depression, bipolar disorder and eating disorders like bulimia. You should recognize a distinction between circumstantial mental health concerns that arise when somebody is simply feeling a bit down because they are stressed or adapting to a new situation, and disorders which can produce prolonged and chronic symptoms that are not triggered by any recognizable external events.
7. People with intellectual disabilities may struggle with mental processing, and they may experience barriers to acquiring certain intellectual skills. Examples of intellectual disability include Down syndrome.

Focus on reasonable accommodations

Simply gathering the mental or physical condition that someone has may not give you useful information. Finding out that someone has glaucoma or Muscular Dystrophy will not give you any grasp on what types of supports they need or don’t need. That is why we encourage you to think about it in terms of the individual and their lived experience and what they need to be successful.

Models of Disability

Different definitions of disability can also reflect different ways of thinking about disability, known as models. If you are following the exchange professionals pathway, or if you’re just curious, feel free to go to the next page to read about the models of disability.