“Do I have a disability?”
We’ve had a surprising number of people taken aback by the answer to this question. Changes in definitions, awareness, attitudes, and a longtime tendency towards coping vs. acknowledging difficulties or « differences » led to keeping secrets, downplaying issues and self-blame for various behaviors or problems. The discovery one has had a disability for a lifetime is not an unusual experience.
Certainly this led to a variety of unfortunate outcomes from this lack of awareness.
- Missed opportunities
- Harmful actions
- Unnecessarily poor performance in jobs, relationships
- Poor health
- Self harm
- Misunderstood motives
This delay in recognition is more frequent with what are commonly called “invisible disabilities”. These are many and varied and may only represent a period of time during an illness or the progression of a disease (for example, many autoimmune disorders may be progressive and initial symptoms may be quite mild - or not). These may present particularly difficult problems for those with them due to challenges to their situation, lack of support, difficulty in dealing with need to avoid particular events and the like.
Some background on disabilities from an international viewpoint: Disability (who.int)
There are endless descriptions detailing how to categorize disabilities and, in truth, the most important thing to understand is that there are, indeed, endless situations which “qualify”, endless ways they can manifest, and endless ways they can be addressed. One way to respond to this scope and diversity is to always assume that if a person you encounter is experiencing difficulty, discomfort or seems to need help with something, you should give them “the benefit of the doubt” and not get cranky or critical in response.
Description 1.
CDC describes 7 major categories of primary barriers to participation for people with disabilities - they are described in this article and listed below.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/disability-barriers.html
- Attitudinal
- Communications
- Physical
- Policy
- Programmatic
- Social
- Transportation
Description 2.
Here is another set of ideas on how to categorize disabilities.
Disabilities: Definition, Types and Models of Disability | Disabled World (disabled-world.com)
Description 3.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
“A person with a disability is someone who:
- has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
- has a history or record of such an impairment (such as cancer that is in remission), or
- is perceived by others as having such an impairment (such as a person who has scars from a severe burn).”
The term “substantially limits” is interpreted broadly and is not meant to be a demanding standard. But not every condition will meet this standard. An example of a condition that is not substantially limiting is a mild allergy to pollen.
Major life activities are the kind of activities that you do every day, including your body’s own internal processes. There are many major life activities in addition to the examples listed here. Some examples include:
- Actions like eating, sleeping, speaking, and breathing
- Movements like walking, standing, lifting, and bending
- Cognitive functions like thinking and concentrating
- Sensory functions like seeing and hearing
- Tasks like working, reading, learning, and communicating
- The operation of major bodily functions like circulation, reproduction, and individual organs
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- HIV
- Autism
- Cerebral palsy
- Deafness or hearing loss
- Blindness or low vision
- Epilepsy
- Mobility disabilities such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair, walker, or cane
- Intellectual disabilities
- Major depressive disorder
- Traumatic brain injury
The ADA covers many other disabilities not listed here.