Types of Disabilities
Mobility impairment—This term is used to describe numerous disabling conditions that affect movement and ambulation. Conditions range from chronic pain to quadriplegia. Mobility impairments may be caused by accidents or other traumatic events, by chronic events such as disease, or by a condition that progresses slowly from birth. Examples of common disabling conditions resulting in mobility impairment include arthritis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury or stroke.
Visual impairment—The term “visual impairment” is used to describe many degrees of vision loss, including low vision, legally-defined blindness, and total blindness.
Hearing impairment—Hearing impairments vary greatly from mild hearing loss to profound deafness. The term “hard of hearing” describes those who have mild to moderate hearing loss. Mild hearing loss includes those who are able to hear everything except very high-pitched sounds. Moderate hearing loss describes people unable to hear a conversation without amplification. “Deaf” includes people with severe to profound hearing loss.
Developmental disability—The term “developmental disability” is used to describe those conditions that affect, or appear to affect, the mental and/or physical development of individuals, resulting in a severe impairment in the individual’s ability to function in daily life. Life activities that may be affected are communication, learning, mobility, self-care, self-direction, economic self-sufficiency, and the capacity for independent living.
Learning disability—There are several different types of learning disabilities, including dyslexia, hyperactivity, hypoactivity, memory disorder, over-attention, and perceptual difficulties; any or all of these can interfere with a person's ability to store, process or produce information. Learning disabilities can affect one's ability to read, write, speak or compute math, and can impede social skills.