WHAT IS DISABILITY? When you deal with disability on a daily basis, either as part of your work or at your home, the ‘term’ disability loses its original implication. You can appreciate a shift of your focus from ‘disability’ to ‘ability’ of the people/subjects affected, as you see that in the mobile dimension that life is, even disability does not halt the passage of time and one has to figure out ways to pass whatever duration they have been allocated by life. Recently I worked on a project which had something to do with classification of health and health related conditions. Although the project was tedious and tiresome (and sometimes very boring), yet the learning I got from it was very valuable, and it solved in my mind, a lot of the questions and confusions I had about the term ‘disability’. {The project revolved around the WHO classifications of health and health related conditions called ICF ( international classification of functioning, disability and health)} After the second world war, when there were a lot of people who had survived war injuries, the focus of medicine shifted from ‘treatment’ of conditions to ‘management’ of conditions, which were lasting and disabling. Just around this time the World Health Organization set up a committee responsible to define ‘health’ and ‘health related conditions’. One of the many issues that were highlighted and explained during this exercise was the explanation of terms disability and handicap in context of physical, social and societal factors. An easy way to look at this is to think of ‘health’ as a 4 dimensional model. A change in health begins from step 1, and then the subsequent steps follow: Disease or illness or injury--- this constitutes the change or alteration in ‘health’. For example a stroke,or heart attack. This in turn leads to... Impairment--- which is the obvious deficit in the body’s structure or function, like paralysis or difficulty in breathing. This leads to.... Disability---- the performance and behavioral deficiency in the person, for example unable to walk independently. This leads to..... Handicap---- the physical and social disadvantages imposed by the society or environment or circumstances, for instance, the inability of a paralyzed person to be an active soldier etc. So disability or ability of a person needs to be taken in the context of not only the body structure or function, but also in considering what activities and environment they are subjected to. Even the best of people, with all their faculties intact, will be disabled if put in a situation where the tasks or environment to them that is incompatible to their physical ability. An easy example of this is underwater diving, or space travel. In both situations, without the proper equipment, it will be impossible to maintain breathing, hence rendering the person disabled for that particular task. By this same token, it is possible for someone with a physical disability to be given circumstances, environments and tasks that compensates for their disability and makes them able to function and perform. Eg, prosthetic legs to the soldiers of war injuries, or even simply, hearing aids for people with hearing deficits. So, the take home message is to never consider disability only in terms of physical capacity, but also consider the interplay of the circumstances and tasks in question. Looking at it in this manner brings the notion of health and disability in a new light. It enables us to acknowledges that every human being can experience a decrement in health and thereby experience some degree of disability. Disability is not something that only happens to a minority of humanity, thus it allows us to ‘mainstream’ the experience of disability and recognize it as a universal human experience. Have a look at the following animation to explain this idea further. Arshia. Nov 7, 2013. youtube/watch?v=0Qn3OQvrkOs
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 19:35:25 +0000
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