Understanding Disability: Types, Causes, and Support
Understanding Disability
Standardization
It’s crucial to facilitate the mentally disabled in developing a lifestyle as normal as possible, enabling them to obtain security clearances and jobs in mainstream society.
Integration
People with disabilities are entitled to a life as normal as others, accessing the same places and enjoying the same services.
Accessibility
People with disabilities should be guaranteed access, potentially by removing barriers and adopting positive action measures. These measures should prevent or compensate for disadvantages, allowing participation in political, economic, cultural, and social spheres.
Concepts Related to Disability: International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps
Deficiency
Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physical, or anatomical structure or function.
Disability
Any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in a manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Handicap
A disadvantage resulting from a deficit or disability that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role considered normal for an individual.
The International Classification of Functioning and Health (ICF)
Health Status
Alterations in an individual’s health that can generate pain, distress, or interference with daily living activities. These alterations could lead to contact with health services or require community/social support.
Deficiency
Problems in body function or body structures, such as material misstatement or loss.
Activity
Performing a task or action. It covers the entire range of vital areas. In this context, we discuss activity limitations, meaning the difficulties an individual with a particular condition might have carrying out various activities.
Participation
Engaging in society. This model relates to restrictions on participation.
Contextual Factors
The total background of a person’s life and lifestyle, which may have affected their health and current state. These factors can be environmental and personal.
Types of Disabilities
Visual Impairment
A noticeable decrease in the ability to see.
Causes
- Hereditary visual diseases: Transmitted from parent to child through genes.
- Congenital eye disease: Disorders or defects present at birth, usually due to disturbances in embryonic development.
- Acquired eye diseases: Diseases of the visual system that can occur at any stage of life.
- Other diseases unrelated to the visual system but with visual effects.
Types
- Blind
- Partially blind
- Low vision
- Limited vision
Hearing Impairment
Loss that impairs the sensory perception of sound stimuli, influencing the quantity and quality of sounds perceived. Also called hearing loss.
Causes
Circumstances vary and are classified by origin:
- Hereditary hearing loss: Linked to an abnormality in an individual’s genes.
- Acquired hearing loss: Categorized into prenatal, neonatal, and postnatal depending on when they appear.
Typology
According to Degree:
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Profound
- Cophosis (total deafness)
Depending on Time:
- Prelinguistic (before speech development)
- Postlinguistic (after speech development)
Mental Retardation
A disability characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, as expressed in practical, social, and conceptual skills.
Three Key Aspects
- Limitations in daily functioning
- The intellectual component
- Adaptive behavior
Grades
- Deep CI: -25
- Severe CI: 25 to 35
- Moderate CI: 36 to 51
- Mild CI: 52 to 70
- Limits or borderline IQ: 70 to 83
Causes
- Genetic factors (inherited)
- External factors (prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal)
Requirements
- Require more experience to learn
- Tend to have less memory storage capacity
- May have scattered attention and difficulty maintaining focus
- May exhibit impulsivity and struggle with learning strategies and planning
- May learn better through information manipulation
- May have a reduced capacity for self-regulation
- May require additional support for social relationships
Support and Assistance
These are resources and strategies to promote development, education, interests, and personal welfare, ultimately increasing individual performance.
Physical Disability
A person with a physical disability experiences problems in the production, regulation, and execution of movements. This may be due to an alteration or correction of locomotor function or the nervous system.
Major Disorders That Cause Physical Disability
- Lesions of the nervous system: Damage occurs in the nerve centers of motor control.
- Musculoskeletal injuries: May involve bones, joints, muscles, tendons, or ligaments.
- Injuries of vascular origin: Affect blood vessels, potentially disrupting blood flow to muscles and nerves.
- Amputation or missing limb: Congenital or acquired loss of a limb.
Cerebral Palsy
A disorder of the developing central nervous system that primarily affects neuromotor areas, resulting in difficulty controlling and coordinating the body. Prenatal causes include maternal infections or perinatal complications.
Types of Cerebral Palsy
- Spasticity: A marked increase in muscle tone that can affect the whole body or part of it.
- Athetosis: Difficulty controlling and coordinating voluntary movements.
- Ataxia: Alteration of balance and precision of movements.
- Mixed: A combination of the above effects.
Other Diseases or Disorders
Multiple Sclerosis
A progressive and incurable disease with varied symptoms, mainly characterized by paralysis of the lower limbs, loss of strength, changes in sensation, movement coordination, and sensory perception.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
A disease of motor neurons that causes degeneration of fibers, leading to limb paralysis, cranial nerve dysfunction, and muscle wasting.
Spina Bifida
A disability resulting from incomplete development or closure of the spinal column, producing motor, sensory, and sphincter control difficulties.
Traumatic Muscle Injury
Damage to the spinal cord following an injury, leading to loss of sensation and motor control. Common in falls from heights.
Muscular Dystrophy
A group of hereditary diseases characterized by progressive muscle degeneration without affecting the nervous system.
Arthritis
Joint inflammation due to various causes, potentially leading to damage over time. Symptoms include pain, stiffness, difficulty moving, and swelling, especially in the hands, fingers, hips, knees, and feet.
Cerebral Vascular Accident (Stroke)
Occurs when a hemorrhage or blockage prevents blood from reaching the brain.
Poliomyelitis (Polio)
An infectious disease caused by a virus that attacks the spinal cord, causing paralysis and muscle degeneration without sensory or sphincter disorders.
Levels of Paralysis
- Monoplegia: One limb affected
- Paraplegia: Both lower limbs affected
- Quadriplegia: All four limbs affected
- Diplegia: Both legs affected more severely than the arms
- Hemiplegia: One side of the body affected