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Different Forms of Disability

The disabilities that can affect a person during the course of his life are many. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website points out, these disorders can be obvious or hidden, and can affect a person's ability to function at school or work. Different forms of disability can affect vision, hearing and personality. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which former President George H.W. Bush signed into law in 1990, mandates appropriate accommodations for people with visual, hearing and mobility impairments, among others.

  1. Mobility Impairments/Spinal Cord Injuries

    • Mobility disabilities cause impairments of the upper or lower limbs. Multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis in the legs, or carpal tunnel syndrome in the hands, are examples of such ailments. These diseases can make movement of the respective parts of the body they affect difficult or impossible. These disorders can affect the livelihoods of people whose jobs require walking, such as factory work, or, in the case of carpal tunnel, it can affect musicians, surgeons or typists, who use their hands and fingers to accomplish their required daily tasks. Disability may also arise after a traumatic injury to the spine, which may leave a person partially or totally paralyzed.

    Visual

    • A visual disability is one that significantly interferes with a person's ability to see, or results in blindness. It is a condition that is not easily correctable with eyeglasses or contacts, and is usually progressive. According to DisabledWorld.com, a scratched sclera or cornea, diabetic retinopathy and dry eyes are among such conditions. Furthermore, blindness from other conditions such as glaucoma, which stems from excess ocular pressure, and cataracts, which cloud the lens, fit the definition of a visual disability.

    Auditory

    • A person has an auditory disability if he is either partially deaf or totally devoid of the ability to hear. People with partial hearing loss can wear hearing aids to correct the problem. The totally deaf, however, can learn American Sign Language, which will help them communicate in spite of their loss of hearing.

    Mental/Emotional

    • A variety of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, fall under the mental disability category. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, depression also qualifies as such a disorder. It can cause symptoms such as insomnia and anxiety, which causes the sufferer to be unable to handle stress appropriately. Because of this, it can leave the sufferer without the ability to find and keep a job.

    Learning

    • A learning disability stems from a neurological disorder. According to LD Online, it is the result of differences in the wiring of the brain. The problem can manifest in difficulties in the way a person learns to read, write or calculate. Examples of learning disabilities include dyslexia, which can affect reading because it involves the difficulty of the brain to process written text correctly. Dyscalculia is characterized by the difficulty of the patient to understand how to perform mathematical functions or to understand the abstract concepts involved.

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