Definitions of Disability

Defining disability can be difficult, and I have chosen to pursue the views of people like Marta Russell and Paul Longmore in an attempt to better understand a definition of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act has also provided one take on what disability is, and I have used it to aid me in my own understanding of disability. In this section, however, I chose to start with some thoughts from Joseph Shapiro, a person without what might be considered a disability, concerning what disability might be.

Who are people with disabilities, and what is a disability? In, "No Pity," by Joseph P. Shapiro, there are some different definitions of what a disability might be. Shapiro states that Mitchell LaPlante of the Disability Statistics Program defines disability as anything that limits activity. Shapiro says that there are many disability activists who include health conditions, including health conditions that stigmatize or cause discrimination; having had cancer, for example. If you include any disease or chronic health conditions, Shapiro says, then there are more than 120 million persons with a disability in America. Shapiro states that persons with disabilities are the largest minority in our country. (Shapiro, 1994)

Marta Russell, in Beyond Ramps, presents the definition that the Social Security Administration uses to define disability. The Social Security Administration defines disability as the inability to do any, "substantial gainful activity," in other words, being unable to do any work for twelve months or more. The problem with the SSA's definition of disability, according to Russell, is that it causes confusion because the disability rights movement is moving the disabled toward work. I agree with Ms. Russell, persons with disabilities are capable of working, but lack of accommodation and understanding of the abilities of persons with disabilities on the part of the Social Security Administration leaves disabled persons in unnecessary poverty and is a large, negative influence on the well-being of persons with disabilities. (Russell, 1998)

To define what a disability is, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) incorporated the Rehabilitation Act's 1974 definition of disability; "Any individual who (i) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person's major life activities, (ii) has a record of such an impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having such an impairment.",

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