Common Disabilities
Transcript of Common Disabilities
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COMMON DISABILITIES (page 1 of 2)
Impairment: A reduction in physical or mental function as result of a medical condition. The medical condition could becaused by an injury, disease or other disorder.
Adapted from The MCSS eLearning Course: May I
Help You? Welcoming Customers With Disabilities.
Barrier: Anything that stops a person with a disability from accessing a service or standard of service available to others or anything that makes it difficult for them to take part in society.
Disability: The restriction in a person’s functional capacity that results from an impairment,i.e., functional limitations.
Some commondisabilities include;
Developmental/Intellectual, Hearing,
Learning, Mental Health,Physical/Mobility, and
Visual.
HEARINGVISUALPHYSICAL/MOBILITY
People who are deaf, deafened, deaf-blind orhard of hearing have varying degrees of
hearing loss, and are sometimes referred to
as having a non-visible disability.
Deaf : used to describe individuals with a
severe to profound hearing loss, with little or
no residual hearing. Some deaf people use
American Sign Language (ASL) or langue des
signes québécoise (LSQ) to communicate,
while others use speech from residual
hearing and a hearing aid, technical devices
or cochlear implants, and/or speech-reading
to communicate.
Deafened: an individual who was born with
full hearing, but lost it gradually or suddenly.
Hard of Hearing: used to describe
individuals who use spoken language to
communicate. Most of these individuals can
understand speech sounds with or without
hearing aids and technical devices. Some
hard of hearing persons may communicate
through speech-reading, while others may
use sign language, finger spelling, writing or
a combination of two or more techniques.
Deaf-Blind: a condition where there is a
combined hearing and vision disability that
results in significant difficulties in accessing
information and activities of daily living.
Communication is usually through an
intervener who is used as help for the
customer.
Visual impairments reduce one’sability to see or see clearly. Very few
people are totally blind. Many have
limited/low vision such as tunnel
vision, where a person has a loss of
peripheral or side vision, or a lack of
central vision, which means they
can’t see straight ahead but they can
see peripherally. Some can see the
outline of objects while others can
only see the direction of light.
Impaired vision can restrict a
customer’s ability to read signs,locate landmarks or see hazards. It is
estimated that one million Canadians
have some kind of disability that
makes it difficult or impossible for
them to read conventional print. Our
aging population means an increasing
number of people are becoming part
of this group.
In some cases, it may be difficult to
tell if a person has a visual disability.
Others may use a magnifier, guide
dog or white cane.
Basically, a person with a physicaldisability has difficulty moving,
standing, sitting or physically
communicating. It sometimes may
be difficult to identify a person with
a physical disability.
While we most often associate
people with a physical disability as
using a wheelchair, physical
disabilities are much broader than
‘mobility’. There are many types
and degrees of physical disabilities.
Some people with mobility-relateddisabilities use wheelchairs, but
others use devices, such as
walkers, crutches, scooters, canes,
orthotic braces and prosthetic
limbs.
People who have limited use of
their arms or hands, who have
difficulty with speech, who have
arthritis, heart or lung conditions or
amputations - are also considered
to have physical disabilities.
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COMMON DISABILITIES (page 2 of 2)
Impairment: A reduction in physical or mental function as result of a medical condition. The medical condition could becaused by an injury, disease or other disorder.
Adapted from The MCSS eLearning Course: May I
Help You? Welcoming Customers With Disabilities.
Barrier: Anything that stops a person with a disability from accessing a service or standard of service available to others or anything that makes it difficult for them to take part in society.
Disability: The restriction in a person’s functional capacity that results from an impairment,i.e., functional limitations.
Some commondisabilities include;
Developmental/Intellectual, Hearing,
Learning, Mental Health,Physical/Mobility, and
Visual.
LEARNINGMENTAL HEALTHDEVELOPMENTAL/INTELLECTUAL
The term “learning disability” is used todescribe a wide range of information
processing disorders that may affect
visual, auditory and organizational
abilities. Some examples of learning
disabilities include dyslexia (problems
in reading and related language-based
learning), dyscalculia (problems in
mathematics), and dysgraphia
(problems in writing).
Because learning disabilities are non-
visible disabilities and have wide-
ranging manifestations, they remain aconfusing area. People with learning
disabilities are not “incompetent,
clumsy or lazy”. They possess average
to above-average intelligence, but they
may be facing barriers in specific areas
of performance.
Mental health disabilities includeanxiety disorders (i.e. phobias, panic
disorders, obsessive-compulsive
disorders) and mood disorders (i.e.
depression, bi-polar), as well as
schizophrenia. The numerous
psychiatric and psychological disorders
that fall under this heading may lead to
limitations in several areas: cognitive,
emotional, social functioning and even
physical functioning. As with other
disabilities, the degree of impairment
may vary from mild to severe.
People with mental health disabilities
look like anyone else. You likely won’t
likely know that your customer has a
mental health disability unless you are
informed of it. And, usually it will not
affect your customer service interaction
at all. However, in some cases, it may,
and you should be prepared for this
possibility.
A developmental disability, also calledan intellectual disability, includes
intellectual growth and capacity that
are significantly below average. It
involves a permanent limitation in a
person's ability to learn, with effects
ranging from mild to profound.
People with a
developmental/intellectual disability
may have difficulty doing many things
others may take for granted. For
example, people with
intellectual/developmental disabilitiesmay have limitations in
communications, social interactions,
daily living, or movement skills.
Some people who have a
developmental/intellectual disability
were born without the disability, but
developed it later in life due to an
illness or accident. Treat all your
customers with respect and dignity.
Likely, they have more awareness and
understanding than you may realize.
A key point: Some people think that disabilities are the barrier, but actually it is the environment that
presents certain physical, sociological and attitudinal circumstances that create barriers. These
circumstances are based on a stereotypical view of what the human experience should be like. So remember
“circumstances in the environment” create barriers for people with disabilities – their disabilities don’t.