Some Major Types of Disablities

The World Health Organization defines Disability as follows: "Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives".

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Below you will find a list of the major types of disabilities;

* Deaf and Hard of Hearing

* Vision Impairments

* Mobility Disabilities

* Psychiatric Disabilities

* Learning Disabilities

* Attention Deficit Disorder

* Systemic Disabilities

* Brain Injuries

* Deaf and Hard of Hearing: Deafness is defined as "a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification."

Thus, deafness may be viewed as a condition that prevents an individual from receiving sound in all or most of its forms. In contrast, a child with a hearing loss can generally respond to auditory stimuli, including speech.

Vision Impairments: Total blindness is the inability to tell light from dark, or the total inability to see. Visual impairment or low vision is a severe reduction in vision that can't be corrected with standard glasses or contact lenses and reduces a person's ability to function at certain or all tasks. Legal blindness (which is actually a severe visual impairment) refers to a best-corrected central vision of 20/200 or worse in the better eye or a visual acuity of better than 20/200 but with a visual field no greater than 20° (e.g., side vision that is so reduced that it appears as if the person is looking through a tunnel).

* Mobility Disabilities:Reduced function of legs and feet leads to users depending on a wheelchair or artificial aid to walking. In addition to people who are born with a disability, this group includes a large number of people whose condition is caused by age or accidents.

Mobility disabilities can stem from a wide range of causes and be permanent, intermittent or temporary. Among the most common permanent disorders are musculoskeletal disabilities such as partial or total paralysis, amputation or severe spinal injury, types of arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, head injury and cerebral palsy. Additionally, conditions such as respiratory and cardiac diseases may also impair mobility. Any of these conditions may impair the strength, speed, endurance, coordination and dexterity necessary for proper hand function.

* Psychiatric Disabilities/Mental illness: Mental illness is a term that describes a broad range of mental and emotional conditions. Mental illness also refers to one portion of the broader ADA term mental impairment, and is different from other covered mental impairments such as mental retardation, organic brain damage, and learning disabilities. The term ‘psychiatric disability’ is used when mental illness significantly interferes with the performance of major life activities, such as learning, working and communicating, among others.

*Learning Disabilities: Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information. These problems can make it difficult for a student to learn as quickly as someone who isn't affected by learning disabilities.

* Attention Deficit Disorder: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood disorders and can continue through adolescence and adulthood. Symptoms include difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior, and hyperactivity (over-activity).

* Systemic Disabilities: Systemic Disabilities are conditions that affect one of more of the body’s systems including respiratory, immunological, neurological and circulatory. As with the majority of disabilities, each may affect individuals differently: some more severely than others. The following is a brief description of some of the more common types of Systemic Disabilities.

* Brain Injuries: The term HEAD INJURY refers to an injury to the BRAIN which is usually the result of an accident, or sometimes an assault. Often the injury results froma blow to the head such as may be suffered in an automobile accident, a fall or a gunshot wound. The injury may also occur as a result of lack of oxygen (such as in drowning), or as a result of lack of blood supply to the brain (such as following a cardiac arrest). People with multiple injuries (as in serious auto accidents) often suffer brain injury by more than one of these mechanisms. The term HEAD INJURY is preferable to the term BRAIN DAMAGE because the brain has tremendous powers of recovery. Furthermore, shortly after a head injury, it is usually impossible. 

Source: Online