What is a Disability?
A disability is a
condition or function judged to be significantly impaired relative to
the usual standard of an individual or group. The term is used to refer
to individual functioning, including physical impairment, sensory
impairment, cognitive impairment, intellectual impairment mental
illness, and various types of chronic disease.
Autism
a
developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication and social interaction, generally evident before age
three, that adversely affects a
child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated
with autism are engaging in repetitive activities and stereotyped
movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily
routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.
Deafness
A
hearing impairment so severe that a child is impaired in processing
linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification,
that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Developmental Delay
For
children from birth to age three and children from ages three through
nine- the term developmental delay, means a delay in one or more of the
following areas: physical development; cognitive development;
communication; social or emotional development; or adaptive [behavioral]
development.
Emotional Disturbance
As
defined under federal law at 34 CFR §300.7, the student exhibits one or
more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to
a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance: an
inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or
health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory
interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types
of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive
mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical
symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. The
determination of disability shall not be made solely because the
student's behavior violates the school's discipline code, because the
student is involved with a state court or social service agency, or
because the student is socially maladjusted, unless the Team determines
that the student has a serious emotional disturbance.
Hearing Impairment
An impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but is not included under the definition of “deafness.”
Intellectual Disability
Significantly
subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently [at
the same time] with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during
the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
(Editor’s Note, February 2011: “Intellectual
Disability” is a new term in IDEA. Until October 2010, the law used the
term “mental retardation.” In October 2010, Rosa’s Law was
signed into law by President Obama. Rosa’s Law changed the term to be
used in future to “intellectual disability.” The definition of the term
itself did not change and is what has just been shown above.
Multiple Disabilities
Concomitant
[simultaneous] impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness,
intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of
which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be
accommodated in a special education program solely for one of the
impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.
Orthopedic Impairment
A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a
child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused
by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g.,
poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes
(e.g.,cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause
contracture).
Health Impairment
Having
limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened
alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness
with respect to the educational environment, that—
(a) is due to
chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit
disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes,
epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia,
nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome;
and
(b) adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Specific Learning Disability
A
disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved
in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may
manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read,
write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such
conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain
dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not
include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual,
hearing, or motor disabilities; of intellectual disability; of emotional
disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Speech or Language Impairment/ Communication
A communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Neurological Impairment
The
capacity of the nervous system is limited or impaired with difficulties
exhibited in one or more of the following areas: the use of memory, the
control and use of cognitive functioning, sensory and motor skills,
speech, language, organizational skills, information processing, affect,
social skills, or basic life functions. The term includes students who
have received a traumatic brain injury.
Visual Impairment Including Blindness
An impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.