What do we mean when we say someone is disabled? And why all this special attention to people living with disability?

Umbrella term

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the word “disability” is an umbrella term which includes various forms of affliction impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disabilities may exist from birth or develop later on in life.

Sometimes disabilities are divided into disability, impairment and handicap, where “disability” is used to define a restriction in the ability to perform a normal activity of daily living that someone of the same age is able to perform, “impairment” is used to define a deviation from normal, and “handicap” is used to describe a person who, because of the disability, is unable to achieve the normal role in society commensurate with his age and socio-cultural milieu. To complicate matters even further, some societies may consider something a disability while others may not.

Disability is therefore a complex phenomenon that manifests in die interaction between a person’s body and the specific society in which he or she lives.

Types of disability

In broad terms, disabilities can be divided into:

    • Physical disability, where the functioning of the limbs, or fine and gross motor muscles are afflicted. It also includes abilities that affect daily living, such as severe sleep apnoea
    • Sensory disability, where one of more of the senses are afflicted. It usually refers to hearing and sight impairments, but also includes taste and smelling (olfactory and gustatory), the sensing of touch, cold and heat or pain (somatosensory) and imbalance
    • Intellectual disability, where mild or very specific mental retardation and cognitive deficits occur
    • Mental health and emotional disabilities, where psychological or behavioural patterns occur that are outside normal development or cultural expectations
    • Developmental disability, where problems with growth and development occur
    • Nonvisible disabilities, where impairments are caused by illnesses such as diabetes, asthma and epilepsy.

Number of people living with disability

We often don’t realise how many people are living with a disability.

    • About 15% of the world population live with one or other form of disability
    • Between 110 and 190 million people have a significant problem with day to day functioning.

As the world population increases, there are more people living with disability. This is also the result of a worldwide increase in chronic illnesses.

Problems of people with disability

When considering disability, we tend to focus on the most obvious problems but many of the challenges lie much deeper. Here are some examples:

    • People with disabilities have less access to health care services and therefore experience unmet health care needs.
    • People with disabilities sometimes experience greater vulnerability to secondary conditions (eg pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections, osteoporosis and pain), co-morbid conditions, age-related conditions, engaging in health risk behaviours and higher rates of premature death.
    • Some people with disabilities show early signs of premature ageing (in their 40s and 50s).
    • People with disabilities sometimes have higher rates of risky behaviour such as smoking, poor diet and physical inactivity. Health promotion and prevention programmes seldom target people with disabilities.
    • People with disabilities often have difficulty with access to buildings (including churches, clinics and hospitals), inaccessible medical equipment (eg women with mobility difficulties cannot access mammograms), narrow passages and doorways, stairs inside buildings, inadequate bathrooms facilities and inaccessible parking.
    • People with disabilities are often treated badly or even ignored and therefore they do not get the services that they need.
    • People with disabilities are often subject to rude and disrespectful behaviour from others, which leads to a diminished sense of self-worth
    • People with disabilities are often not afforded the opportunities to develop to their full potential and therefore cannot contribute to and participate fully in society.

It is necessary that society starts looking differently at people living with disabilities. Are we talking about people with disability or are we talking to them? As human beings they can make positive contributions towards a healthy and balanced society.

 

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.who.int