The 6 types of disability and their characteristics

Each and every one of us is unique, possessing different characteristics and living a different life than everyone else. However, most of us have a number of common abilities and skills that are generally taken for granted in most people. And in some cases and due to different circumstances, some people lose or have not developed these skills in the same way as the majority of the population.

These people can suffer due to this various difficulties in different aspects of their lives, being able to suffer different types of disability depending on the type of problems or the abilities or organs that present some alteration. And it is about these different types of disabilities that we are going to talk in this article.

• Related article: "The differences between syndrome, disorder and disease"

What is disability?

We understand disability as any situation in which a subject is limited in his participation in some type of field or action, due to the existence of some type of deficiency in some organ or intellectual capacity. It is in itself the existence of a limitation, not being a cause but a consequence.

The existence of a disability thus implies a difficulty or obstacle for the subject's participation in society or in some aspect or vital domain compared to the possibilities presented by those people without the deficiency in question or even the subject himself at an earlier point in his life. lifetime.

Of course, disability does not imply that the subject who has it cannot reach and perform the same activities as long as they have help tailored to their needs.

In the same way, the term "disability" is not synonymous with illness, although in practice both concepts tend to overlap in many cases. In any case, disability itself is not a word that is limited to the clinical and health field, and Its implications are more related to the world of the social: urbanism, architecture, politics, etc.

The different types of disability

As we have indicated previously, there is not only one type of disability, but we can find different classifications depending on the type of problem in which difficulties arise. Thus, we can establish different major types of disability, the first three being the ones that are most taken into account.

1. Physical disability

It receives the name of physical or motor disability to all that type of limitation generated by the presence of a Problem linked to a decrease or elimination of motor or physical abilities, such as the physical loss of a limb or its usual functionality.

This type of disability arises in the context of spinal problems, traffic accidents, trauma cranioencephalic disease, medical disease generating physical limitation, amputations, congenital malformations or accidents cerebrovascular

2. Sensory disability

Sensory disability refers to the existence of limitations derived from the existence of deficiencies in any of the senses that allow us to perceive the environment, whether external or internal. There are alterations in all senses, although the best known are visual and hearing impairment.

3. Intellectual disability

Intellectual disability is defined as any limitation of intellectual functioning that hinders social participation or the development of the autonomy or from areas such as academic or work, having an IQ below 70 and influencing different cognitive abilities and participation Social. There are different degrees of intellectual disability, which have different implications at the level of the type of difficulties they may present.

• You may be interested: "Intellectual and developmental disability"

4. Mental disability

We speak of mental disability when we are faced with a situation in which they arise behavioral and adaptive behavioral disturbances, generally derived from suffering from some type of mental disorder.

5. Visceral disability

This little known type of disability appears in those people who suffer from some type of deficiency in any of its organs, which generates limitations in life and participation in the community of the subject. This is the case of those that can cause diabetes or heart problems.

6. Multiple disability

This type of disability is the one that derives from a combination of limitations derived from some of the previous deficiencies. For example, a blind subject with intellectual disabilities, or a paraplegic subject with deafness.

What does it socially imply that there are people with disabilities?

As we have seen before, the different types of disability they are not simply an individual problem, but raises a series of debates with social implications.

This is so because the very concept of disabled person does not have to imply that these individuals are condemned to suffer because they cannot adapt to an environment not intended for them.

Thus, there are many social movements that fight for people with disabilities to be included in the notion of citizen with agency to function in a society that takes them into account.

This means, for example, worrying about making streets and buildings accessible, making institutions can be used by them, avoid linguistic formulations that facilitate discrimination, etc. In short, a whole series of claims as plural as it is plural and diverse is society.

Bibliographic references:

• Albrecht, G.L., ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• Blick R.N.; Litz K.S.; Thornhill M.G.; Goreczny A.J. (2016). Do inclusive work environments matter? Effects of community-integrated employment on quality of life for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 53-54: pp. 358 - 366.
• Garden R (2010). Disability and narrative: new directions for medicine and the medical humanities. Medical Humanities, 36 (2): pp. 70 - 74.
• Kaushik, R. (1999). Access Denied: Can we overcome disabling attitudes. Museum International. 51 (3): pp. 48 - 52.
• Kayess, R.; French, P. (2008). Out of darkness into light? Introducing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Human Rights Law Review, 8: pp. 1 - 34.
• Tortosa, L.; Gracía-Molina, C.; Page, A.; Ferreras, A. (2008). Ergonomics and disability. Valencia: Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia.