### condition:

Disability
* Disabilities Avoid disparaging terms such as crippled or insane
  - affect individuals and families of all cultures at every economic level
  - affects everyone
  - also develop at the third stage of information processing, memory
* Disabilities are a fact of life and, now, law
  - part of life
  - contagious
  - like personalities, each is unique
  - often invisible
  - part of the overall balance between the natural and the supernatural
  - thought of as mysterious and dangerous
  - treated as if they are contagious
* Disabilities can be physical or mental
  - physical, mental, aural, visual, communicative, or developmental
  - present at birth or as the result of a specific event, such as a car accident
  - visual, aural, physical, communicative, or developmental
  - effect a person's self-esteem
  - occur at conception as a result of coincidental occurrences in the uterus
  - range from amputation or arthritis to orthopedic, respiratory or circulatory
  - take many forms and have varying degrees of severity
  - cause many personal challenges
* Disabilities come in many forms
  - shapes and forms, some more debilitating than others
  - commonly seen in rehab unit are medical, orthopedic, neurological and amputees
  - don t cause people to die
  - experienced by people with brain injuries vary widely
  - fall on a continuum in terms of severity
  - have no limitations and can attack anyone in many forms
  - mean a reduced chance for employment
  - often make people easy targets for crime and abuse
  - range from mild mental retardation to autism, cerebral palsy and spina bifida
  - related to the mind truly frighten people
  - stem from impairments that are congenital or the residual effects of disease or injury
* Many disabilities are invisible
  - have nothing to do with disease
* More disabilities arise in the first half of pregnancy than at any other time in life.
* Most disability affects perceptions
  - leads to health problems
* Pays monthly income if employee becomes disabled and is unable to work.
* Some disabilities are congenital
  - invisible, such as brain injuries or arthritis
  - more visible than others
  - relatively easy to document, such as physical and sensory impairments
  - visible, such as a person in a wheelchair
  - can be self-certifying, such as blindness or use of a mobility aid or wheelchair
  - cause loss of bladder control
  - raise issues of physical access
  - require consuming large quantities of fluids and urinating often
* Some disability is caused by injuries
  - multiple sclerosis
* affects more than one in five adults
* also affects families.
* arises when an impairment makes any task difficult or impossible to perform.
* can be result of traumatic injury, birth defect or disease of the spinal cord
  - bring interpersonal losses as relationships end or caregiving parents age and die
  - happen to anyone at any time
* category that is age-defined.
* causes loss of control, helplessness, isolation.
* challenges all notions of perfection and beauty as defined by popular, dominant culture.
* changes a person's world.
* comes in many forms - some visible, some invisible.
* complicates the interaction of people and work.
* condition, and disablement is the state of a person with that condition.
* contextual variable, dynamic over time and circumstance.
* covers a broad range of physical, mental, sensory and emotional or learning difficulties.
* exists as a constellation of the experiences.
* feeds on poverty and poverty on disability.
* form of diversity, so that feeds into it.
* happens in every culture and every socioeconomic group.
* has teeth.
* includes mental and physical disability
  - impairment and learning disabilities
  - physical disability or illness
  - the problems in activities of daily living that result from the impairments
* increases poverty and poverty increases disability
  - rapidly with age and it is well known that the world's population is ageing
* is actually as great a threat to family security as either death or old age
  - almost never total in that it affects a narrow range of activity
  - an example of cultural diversity
* is associated with fewer economic resources, thereby increasing the risk of abuse
  - malnutrition in institutionalized elderly people
  - costly by both quality of life and economic measures
  - estimated to be more prevalent in the developing countries
  - everywhere and touches almost everyone's life
  - experienced by all racial, social, economic, gender and age groups
  - found at all social and economic positions, as well as at any age level
  - in part a consequence of limitations in the external environment
  - just part of that person's make-up
  - medical conditions
* is more common than death
  - prevalent in older age groups of the population
  - no respecter of age, sex or race
  - now one of nine identified categories against which it is illegal to discriminate
* is often apparent at birth
  - the result of dangerous working conditions and poor safety standards
  - only a state of mind
* is part of the human condition
  - seen as a fate worse than death
  - seven times more likely than death to occur during a career
  - some difficulty in performing one or more activities of daily living
  - something that happens to someone else
  - synonymous with loss of earning power
* is the culprit when sexual activity decreases or stops
  - effect impairment has on the injured worker's ability to work
  - gap between the individual and the environment
  - when that impairment makes any task difficult or impossible
* is, after all, a common condition of life.
  - poverty and poverty leads to disability
* limitation within an individual caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment.
* means a loss of personal functions
  - substantial disruption of one's ability to carry out normal life functions
  - hardship, being different from a person with a full range
  - totally and permanently disabled
* natural condition of the human experience.
* normal characteristic of the new human
  - part of being human
  - the human journey
* political word.
* prime cause and consequence of poverty, yet so often the causes are preventable.
* ranks as the nation's largest public health problem.
* refers to a limitation that affects an individual's ability to perform certain functions
  - any and all disabilities
  - decreased earning capacity
  - short-term disability benefits
  - the effect that the impairment has on the individual
* restriction of activities as a result of impairment.
* rights issue.
* substantial impairment that limits a major life activity.
* therefore refers to a diminished capacity to earn money rather than physical infirmity.