What Are Recognizable Disabilities

According to WHO around 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability–this number is slightly over a billion people. These people are not able to live their lives normally without some technology to lessen the burden.

Some of the people exposed more to disability include women, war-torn countries, and poor countries. To manage disability countries and International organizations pull resources to their rescue.

Despite the actions taken, a huge percentage does not receive support. Individuals like refugees, illegal immigrants, poor countries, and indigenous people lack access to support due to other barriers.

These are some of the globally recognized disabilities at a glance

  • Blindness
  • Specific Learning Disabilities
  • Hearing Impairment
  • Dwarfism
  • Mental Illness
  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Muscular Dystrophy
  • Locomotor Disability
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Parkinson Disease

Having a recognizable disability, for instance, means you can access benefits such as long-term disability claims, medical support, and admission into special institutions and infrastructure.

Here is a detailed brief of 5 common recognizable disabilities.

 

1. Blindness

Blindness is the total or impartial loss of vision. Some of the causes of blindness include diabetes, severe accidents, number of eye diseases, age damage to eyes, and cataracts.

Quick statistics– Globally over 2.2 billion people suffer from impaired eyesight–I billion of the cases being preventable.

Challenges blind people face– Blind people find it difficult to navigate around places, obtaining reading materials, rarely enjoy privacy and freedom. A service dog can help to people to navigate around houses and streets.

Governments, state institutions, private sector, and other humanitarian organizations develop programs to ease the burden caused by blindness.

 

2. Specific Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities affect a learner’s ability to do mathematical computations, spell, think, write, listen, and speak.  

Learning disability is a broad term with specific disabilities according to the area of disability.

  • Dyslexia– This is a learning disability that affects reading ability.
  • Dysgraphia– This disability affects writing ability.
  • Dyscalculia– This is the disability that affects mathematics ability.

If a student displays difficulty remembering facts with figures, has slow and strenuous reading and writing, these are signs of a possible learning disability.

Intervention– Such a learner may require a thorough diagnosis from a health professional or standard testing exam. Individualized Learning programs should be created to assist those who suffer from it.

 

3. Hearing Impairment

Hearing impairment or deafness is the partial or total loss of detecting sound qualities. Some of the symptoms include: –

  • Total inability to hear a sound
  • Ringing sound in the ears
  • Children can develop speech delay
  • Being a lone wolf

Causes:  Hearing impairment can be caused by damage to the inner ear, sudden exposure to loud noise leading to tearing of sound detecting nerves. Gradual earwax buildup and ear infections can also cause hearing impairment or loss.

Quick fact: Approximately a third of people in the United States aged 65-75 years have a hearing impairment

Treatment: Depending on the severity the condition can be cured by surgery or a hearing aid. In extreme cases of total loss lip-reading skills, sign language and a combination of written text can help.

 

4. Parkinson Disease

This disease is associated with movement disorder or disability. It affects the nervous system with early signs such as tremor in hands.

Common signs to detect the disease

  • Coordination– This leads to falling things, losing balance, and falling to the ground.
  • Body Posture– This may change and tend to lean forward.
  • Facial expression– This may assume a constant expression due to damage in the nervous system.
  • Loss of sense of smell
  • Tremor in hands

Caution: It is good to have a full medical examination as this condition has similar symptoms to other conditions–like head trauma, stroke, multiple system atrophy, and Lewy body dementia.

Treatment: The condition can only be managed by medications to relieve symptoms. Physical therapy is also used to help patients.

 

5. Mental Illness

Mental illness is manifested in a wide range of mental disorders. This disorder affects your thinking, mood, and behavior. Mental concerns are also common in people but persistent signs like frequent stress affect your productivity.

Examples of mental illnesses include anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, addictive behaviors, and depression.

Some of the signs include: –  

  • Suicidal thinking
  • Extreme changes in eating habits
  • Hallucinations, paranoia, or better still paranoia.
  • Sleeping problems, low energy, and extreme tiredness
  • Major mood swings–highs and lows.
  • The feeling of sadness and down.
  • Medical symptoms like headaches, stomach pain, back pains, and other aches.

Treatment: Depending on the severity of the condition, treatment may vary. They include care from family members, counseling services, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medicine, psychotherapy, and brain stimulation programs.

Level of Mental Illness: Health professionals can diagnose the level of mental illness. This helps to classify cases that qualify for disability claims and insurance company administration.

 

What benefits do people with recognizable disabilities accrue?

 

People with recognizable disabilities are recognized by the Federal governments. The individuals are registered under a protection body to help manage their situation. Some of the benefits they accrue include: –

  • Infrastructure adjustments– To ease the movement of the disabled people governments adjust or make provisions in existing infrastructure. These include lifts, parking lots, and public transport systems.
  • Disability benefits– In some countries there are monetary benefits that accrue to disabled people to help them cope better. In Canada, for instance, there is employment insurance which cautions employees if they were unable to work due to various form of disabilities.

If you suffer from long term injury that prevents you from working, you could still be eligible.

  • Reserved positions/Job roles– To help people living with disability governments and some private institutions reserve posts for the qualified. This helps to shield them from the competition of the other population.
  • Medical aid coverage– In the United States those who are socially protected and above the age of 65 years or left workforce due to disability qualify for medical aid. This assists them to keep accessing insurance health coverage

How can you claim the above assistance all access some of the subsidized services? Each federal government has a respective onboarding process to help meet all criteria.

 

Take Away

Recognizable disabilities are many and the above listed and described are examples to help you understand the concept. People with recognizable disabilities are recognized by governments, international bodies, and corporations to help them cope. They also need a strong family and community bond.

If for instance, you notice one of the signs of Parkinson’s disease, a thorough examination can help you establish facts. Registering with relevant bodies is one of the steps in getting help, this though can be in liaison with medical experts.

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Written by HealthStatus Crew
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus teams with authors from organizations to share interesting ideas, products and new health information to our readers.

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