Articles
Different Types of Disabilities
by Joyeeta Gupta Social WorkerAn individual with restrictions or lack of abilities to perform any activity in the manner or within a range that's regarded as normal for any human being is treated as having disability. It excludes injury/illness of recent origin resulting into a temporary loss of ability to see, hear, move or speak.
There are different kinds of disabilities, which you may observe. Have a look at them:
Mental disability: People who have difficulty to understand daily instructions, who are not able to carry out activities like other people of same age or exhibits behaviours such as crying, laughing, staring, violence, suspicion or fear without any reason are regarded as mentally disabled.
Visual disability: By this, it is meant, lack or loss of ability to execute tasks that need adequate visual acuity. Visually disabled people are those who do not have any kind of light perception or people who have light perception but cannot count fingers on hand correctly from a distance of about 10 feet in good day light with both the eyes open.
Hearing disability: People who are unable to hear properly fall in this category. This means, if one ear of an individual is normal and other one has a total hearing loss, then the individual is judged as normal in hearing. Hearing disability is judged without considering the usage of hearing devices.
People with hearing disability can have different degrees of disability such as severe, profound or moderate. An individual is considered to have profound hearing disability if he/she is not able to hear at all or is only able to hear sounds that are loud like the sounds of thunder or is capable of understanding only gestures. A person is treated as having severe hearing disability if the person can only hear words when shouted and spoken to him or her or can hear only if the person speaking is sitting in front of him or her. A person is treated as having a moderate hearing disability if her/his disability is neither severe nor profound.
Speech disability: This refers to people who are unable to speak properly. Speech of a person is not understood properly by the listener. People with speech disability include those people who cannot speak, can speak but only with a few words or those people who have loss of voice. It also includes those people whose speech isn't understood because of the defects in speech like nasal voice, stammering, hoarse voice, articulation defects and discordant voice etc.
Locomotor disability: An individual with (a) lack or loss of normal ability to execute specific activities that are related with movement of objects and self and (b) physical deformities other than those involving the leg or hand or both, irrespective of whether the same causes lack or loss of normal movement of body is regarded as disabled with locomotor disability. Hence people having locomotor disability include those with (a) absence or loss or inactivity of part or whole of hand or leg or both because of paralysis, dysfunction of joints, and (b) those having physical deformities in body like deformed spine, hunch back etc. People and dwarfs having stiff neck of a permanent nature usually do not have problem in moving normally with their limbs and body but are treated as disabled people.
There are many organizations in India that provide assistance and advice to these different kinds of disabled people.
There are different kinds of disabilities, which you may observe. Have a look at them:
Mental disability: People who have difficulty to understand daily instructions, who are not able to carry out activities like other people of same age or exhibits behaviours such as crying, laughing, staring, violence, suspicion or fear without any reason are regarded as mentally disabled.
Visual disability: By this, it is meant, lack or loss of ability to execute tasks that need adequate visual acuity. Visually disabled people are those who do not have any kind of light perception or people who have light perception but cannot count fingers on hand correctly from a distance of about 10 feet in good day light with both the eyes open.
Hearing disability: People who are unable to hear properly fall in this category. This means, if one ear of an individual is normal and other one has a total hearing loss, then the individual is judged as normal in hearing. Hearing disability is judged without considering the usage of hearing devices.
People with hearing disability can have different degrees of disability such as severe, profound or moderate. An individual is considered to have profound hearing disability if he/she is not able to hear at all or is only able to hear sounds that are loud like the sounds of thunder or is capable of understanding only gestures. A person is treated as having severe hearing disability if the person can only hear words when shouted and spoken to him or her or can hear only if the person speaking is sitting in front of him or her. A person is treated as having a moderate hearing disability if her/his disability is neither severe nor profound.
Speech disability: This refers to people who are unable to speak properly. Speech of a person is not understood properly by the listener. People with speech disability include those people who cannot speak, can speak but only with a few words or those people who have loss of voice. It also includes those people whose speech isn't understood because of the defects in speech like nasal voice, stammering, hoarse voice, articulation defects and discordant voice etc.
Locomotor disability: An individual with (a) lack or loss of normal ability to execute specific activities that are related with movement of objects and self and (b) physical deformities other than those involving the leg or hand or both, irrespective of whether the same causes lack or loss of normal movement of body is regarded as disabled with locomotor disability. Hence people having locomotor disability include those with (a) absence or loss or inactivity of part or whole of hand or leg or both because of paralysis, dysfunction of joints, and (b) those having physical deformities in body like deformed spine, hunch back etc. People and dwarfs having stiff neck of a permanent nature usually do not have problem in moving normally with their limbs and body but are treated as disabled people.
There are many organizations in India that provide assistance and advice to these different kinds of disabled people.
- Office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities-the government agency that is responsible for implementing Persons with Disabilities Act.
- Association of People with Disabilities-an organization, which aims to empower the disabled people.
- Ability Foundation-the umbrella organisation that works in advocacy with NGOs from all over India.
- Asha Bhavan Centre is an NGO for disabled persons in India. It works towards improving the socio-economic condition and protecting and ensuring the rights of disabled persons.
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About Joyeeta Gupta 
Social Worker
10 connections, 0 recommendations, 39 honor points.Joined APSense since, March 2nd, 2015, From Kolkata, India.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
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