Types of Disability Definitions

A disability is a physical or mental impairment that results in long-term negative effects in the ability to carry out normal daily activities such as walking, feeding yourself, seeing, hearing and speaking. Disability is divided into mobility impairment, cognitive impairment, hearing impairment, visual impairment and speech impairment.

Mobility Impairment

• Mobility impairment is a disabling condition that affects the purposeful and independent movement of the whole body or some extremities. Mobility impairments can be permanent or temporary, as in the case of a bone fracture. People with mobility impairments have limited movement and often need some sort of aid, such as crutches, artificial limbs, wheelchairs and canes to move around. Examples of mobility impairments include cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and heart defects. Cerebral palsy affects body movements and muscle coordination, spina bifida causes various degrees of paralysis in the lower limbs while muscular dystrophy results in progressive degeneration of the muscles that control movement. Heart defects affect the proper functioning of the heart, causing inadequate pumping of blood to the lungs and other parts of the body.

Cognitive Impairment

• Cognitive disability is a type of intellectual disability that causes afflicted individuals to struggle with mental tasks. This disability could be caused by hereditary, environmental influences such as severe neglect and malnutrition, maternal ingestion of toxic substances such as drugs and alcohol or other factors such brain disease, infections and lead poisoning. Cognitive disabilities include dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), brain injury and genetic disability. Dyslexia results in a learning disability while ADHD affects the ability of an individual to focus and sit still. Brain injury could be as result of stroke, brain tumors, meningitis and other maladies that can impair the normal functioning of the brain. Genetic disabilities include autism, Down's syndrome and dementia that be severe enough for the affected individual to require assistance to carry out daily activities.

Hearing Impairment

• Hearing impairment results in a decreased or total inability to hear sound. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association identifies three types of hearing loss, conductive (partial), sensorineural (permanent) and mixed (mixture of conductive and sensorineural) hearing loss.