3.1: Framework for Learning

Defining Categories of Disabilities

Disability is an overall term defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and incorporates these 3 components:

• Impairment: Of body functions (sensory or cognitive functions) and body structures (organ or limb functions)
• Activity limitations: Carrying out daily activities such as self-care, mobility, and learning
• Participation restrictions: Challenges participating within the family and community environments or settings

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines a child with a disability as having:

• An intellectual disability
• A hearing impairment (including deafness)
• A speech or language impairment
• A visual impairment (including blindness)
• A serious emotional disturbance
• An orthopedic impairment
• Autism
• Traumatic brain injury
• Other health impairments
• A specific learning disability
• Multiple disabilities (e.g., deaf–blindness)

The Limitations of Categories

Be aware that by naming and describing categories of disabilities, you stay open to the reality that each child with a disability is unique. As Dr. Stephen Shore, an autistic professor, once said, “When you meet one person with Autism, you’ve met one person with Autism.”

This could be said of children with all disabilities as well. The child may be challenged not only by their disability, but also by experiences common to all students, disabled or not. The same disability may pose more problems in one child or situation than in others. For example, a student with a reading difficulty may have trouble in a language arts class, for example, but not in phys-ed, or a student with a hearing impairment may have more trouble "hearing" a topic that he dislikes compared to one that he likes.

Official descriptions of "categories of disabilities" do not factor in the inherent nuance and complexities in individual circumstances and experiences. Categorizations risk stereotyping the real, live humans to whom they are applied. Categories (or "labels") can be useful as a starting point to provide teachers, parents, and other professionals with a basic language or framework for talking about disabilities. Use the categories as a starting point for awareness, understanding, and learning, but be mindful of the uniqueness of each individual child.