Disability
About Disabilities
A Disability is a lack of ability relative to a personal or group standard or norm. In reality there is often simply a spectrum of ability.
Disability may involve physical impairment, sensory impairment, cognitive or intellectual impairment, mental disorder (also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability), or various types of chronic disease. A disability may occur during a person's lifetime or may be present from birth.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are as many as 600 million persons with disabilities worldwide.
The medical model of disability is a model by which illness or disability is the result of a physical condition, is intrinsic to the individual (it is part of that individual’s own body), may reduce the individual's quality of life, and causes clear disadvantages to the individual. As a result, curing or managing illness or disability revolves around identifying the illness or disability, understanding it and learning to control and alter its course.
The disability rights movement aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. For people with physical disabilities accessibility and safety are primary issues that this movement works to reform. Access to public areas such as city streets and public buildings and restrooms are some of the more visible changes brought about in recent decades.
The social model of disability proposes that barriers and prejudice and exclusion by society (purposely or inadvertently) are the ultimate factors defining who is disabled and who is not in a particular society. It recognizes that while some people have physical, intellectual, or psychological differences from a statistical mean, which may sometimes be impairments, these do not have to lead to disability unless society fails to accommodate and include them in the way it would those who are 'normal.'
Current issues and debates surrounding 'disability' include social and political rights, social inclusion and citizenship. In developed countries the debate has moved beyond a concern about the perceived cost of maintaining dependent people with a disability to an effort to find effective ways of ensuring people with a disability can participate in and contribute to society in all spheres of life.
Disabilities can be classified into several different types of disabilities.
Due to website expansion we are in the process of adding new disability categories, the older categories are below, and our new disability related sub-categories can be found in the right hand menu.
Your Disability and Health Stories
Disability Sexuality
Disability and Health Articles
Further Information Regarding DisabilityHow to Cope with Sudden Illness or Disability You have got a great family and circle of friends until one day
something very unfortunate happens to you. You become ill or have an
accident and you can no longer enjoy life as you used to. Suddenly
everything seems to be falling apart. All kinds of scenarios may come
up; you might no longer be in a position to support your family
financially, you could lose your job, simply your dreams are falling
apart.
Tips for the Newly Disabled When a person is newly disabled by accident, illness or genetics, a
host of physical, emotional and social changes present themselves. Most
of these changes are things no one can truly prepare for. There are
suddenly no usual routines and no guidelines in how to proceed with
success.
Disability Quotes - Collection of Quotations Regarding Disabilities "It is a waste of time to be angry
about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done
badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or
complaining." - Stephen Hawking. This and other famous and not so famous quotes regarding disability can be found in our collection of quotes regarding disabilities.
Number of Americans with Disability Growing Nearly 48 million Americans have a disability, an increase of three million from 1999, and arthritis tops the list of most common causes of disability, according to an article published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Workplace Disability and Health Trends The escalating rate of workplace disabilities is causing businesses and consumers alike to revisit how they handle stress and health issues. High stress, lack of exercise and other factors exacerbated by an aging U.S. workforce are contributing to an increase in the numbers of individuals receiving long-term disability payments each year, according to a new study from the Council for Disability Awareness.
Rebuild Your Life After Loss or Injury Today, many are challenged by lost jobs, foreclosed homes, floods, family members away in Iraq, or returning injured. My life was also turned upside-down when I suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and as a single person, I didn't know what to do.
Disability - A State of Mind In today's society, with its progressive treatment of people with disabilities and the numerous opportunities available to people with disabilities to become full members of society, it is hard to believe that attitudes such as what I encountered last weekend still persist, but they do.
Defining Disability Today Officially, there are many ways of defining what a disability is, although the two most commonly used models used for deriving the definitions are known as the 'medical model' and the 'social model'.
Identifying Disability Fraud Disability fraud is a major problem world wide. There are millions of people receiving disability assistance from social security, insurance companies, and other institutions all around the world.
Focus on Abilities not Disabilities Most times when people look at others with a disability they only see
what they can not do. Why is that? As with anyone else we all have our
strengths and weaknesses. You have strengths. You have weaknesses.
President Elect Barack Obamas Plan to Empower Persons with Disabilities President Elect Barack Obama, in his outline of actions promised to
American's with Disabilities located on his campaign website, stated
many things that have the potential to enhance the lives of persons
with disabilities in our nation. The statement revealed a four-part
plan that presents the following focus areas of action, intended to
increase access and opportunity for persons with disabilities in
America.
Disability RSS News Feeds - Disabled World Add our health and disability RSS feeds to your website or blog and bring visitors to your site by showing our most recent news and articles from Disabled World, all automatically updated on your site.
|