What is the difference between handicap disability and impairment

The terms disability, impairment, and handicap have been used synonymously within the education, counseling, and health literature. Although, each of these three terminology can be used when discussing disabling conditions, they convey three different meanings.

Impairment — any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function. Disability — any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. Handicap A handicap refers to the disadvantage for an individual that restricts and limits any activity.

It is the result of impairment and disability. It is not a characteristic of a person. It defines the relationship between the person and the environment. Thus, building a ramp for people with reduced mobility should be as natural as building a doors and stairs.

It is not the inability to walk which handicaps people, but the fact that there are steps because ramps into a building were simply forgotten or regarded as not important. This is the case when there are no enforced access policies to overcome these barriers. Poor disabled people? NO, NO! Being disabled is not so terrible after all, if the society or group enables equal participation, regardless disabilities.

Sign in now. If you want to rate this tool, you have to be signed in. The impairment may be inability to associate sounds with symbols, for example. In Cindy's case, the inability to read is a disability. The disability can probably be improved by trying different teaching methods and using those that seem most effective with Cindy.

If the impairment can be explained, it may be possible to dramatically improve the disability by using a method of teaching that does not require skills that are impaired That is, if the difficulty involves learning sounds for letters, a sight-reading approach can improve her level of disability.

Cindy already experiences a handicap as compared with other children in her class at school, and she may fail third grade. Her condition will become more handicapping as she gets older if an effective approach is not found to improve her reading or to teach her to compensate for her reading difficulties. Even if the level of disability stays severe that is, she never learns to read well , this will be less handicapping if she learns to tape lectures and "read" books on audiotapes.

Using such approaches, even in elementary school, can prevent her reading disability from interfering with her progress in other academic areas increasing her handicap.

Sheena L. Carter, Ph.