The term disability is one term used to describe a wide variety of conditions or impairments that impact a person’s ability to engage in or complete everyday activities or interactions.
There are many different causes of disabilities including those resulting from injury or illness, genetic conditions, or complications during pregnancy or birth.
As a rough guide the types of disabilities can be categorised into four groups with examples of each provided below:
Physical disabilities – Long term or permanent loss of part of your body’s physical function: amputation, acquired brain injury, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, polio, respiratory disorders, spina bifida.
- Intellectual disabilities – long term or permanent reduced ability to communicate, learn or think which challenges in everyday activities and relationships.
- Autism, developmental delay, down syndrome, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
- Sensory disabilities – long term or permanent difficulty in using everyday senses including sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and special awareness.
- Sensory modulation disorder, sensory-based motor disorder, sensory discrimination disorder, vision impairments, hearing impairments, Autism, sensory processing disorder.
- Mental health disabilities – A person’s mental health is a state of wellbeing which every individual realises their potential, can cope with the normal stressors of life, work productively and is able to make a contribution to his/her community.
- Anxiety, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression,