What Qualifies as a Disability?

A disability is a broad term used to describe physical, cognitive, emotional, mental, sensory or developmental impairments that can limit activities or one's ability to complete a specific task. Today, many advocates object to the term disability in describing differences among individuals because the term can create a social stigma.

Occurrence

• A disability can occur at any time during a person's life or may be present from the time of birth. The time of the occurrence depends heavily on the type of ailment. For instance, blindness may be present from birth but could also be caused by a corneal disease or injury to the eye.

Disability Compensation

• If a person has a disability, he may qualify for disability compensation or benefits for people with disabilities. This depends heavily on the type of disability and the cause. For instance, if you were harmed in wartime, you would receive benefits from the Veterans Administration, but other disability benefits normally go through the Social Security Administration. The definition of a disability based on the Social Security Administration's guidelines is based on a person's inability to work. Social Security determines that you are disabled if you cannot do work that you did previously, if you cannot adjust to another type of work, or if the disability has an expectancy of more than one year or can result in death. This means that not everyone with a disability can qualify for financial assistance from Social Security.

Restrictions

• Social Security normally assumes that working families have the ability to receive other sources of assistance during the time of a short-term disability, such as worker's compensation, insurance payments, or savings and cashing out on long-term investments.

Categorization

• A disability is impairment caused to a specific area of the body or multiple areas of the body and may affect different functions, which may be described as the category of disability and normally refers to what part of the body is affected.

Physical Disability

• A physical disability affects the motor ability of the body, such as loss of a limb, or may impair specific parts of life, such as a sleep disorder. A person with a physical disability may be capable of working or may have limited work hours depending on the severity of the illness.

Sensory Disability

• Sensory disabilities refer to an impairment of one of the senses and normally refer to issues with hearing or vision, though they can refer to other senses. Although visual impairment is put into the category of a sensory disability, visual impairment or loss can qualify someone to receive financial support from the government if the loss cannot be corrected through surgery, refraction or medication. Hearing impairment or deafness refers to those who cannot perceive frequencies of sound that are typically heard.

Cognitive and Developmental Disability

• A cognitive disability, which is also known as an intellectual disability, refers to cognitive deficits. These deficits may appear at any age and may involve a specific learning disability. A developmental disability affects the growth and development of an individual and can also refer to medical conditions like spina bifida.

Mental Health

• A mental disability is a psychological or behavioral pattern that involves distress and prevents concentration, completion of daily living tasks, impairs concentration or causes decompensation. In order to qualify as disabled, someone with a mental disability must have problems with two or three of the four areas of functioning, depending on the diagnosis.