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Disability Definitions
The
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, as amended, identifies 13 specific
disabilities. They range from autism to orthopeadic impairments to visual impairments. |
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Listed here are descriptions
of these disability terms developed by the Thirteenth National Conference on School
Transportation, and published in the Final Recommendations of the Conference in
the National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures,
2000 Revised Edition, pgs. 290-291. This 360 page document is considered
a definitive resource about transportation principles. Information on where to
obtain the Publication is provided at the bottom of this page. |
(Image
courtesey of
Disability
Clip Art (c)] |
Meanwhile,
detailed information about the 13 disabilities can be obtained from the National
Information Center for Children and Youth. Visit the Center's website find Disability
Fact Sheets and Briefing Papers which cover the definition, incidence, characteristics,
and educational implications about each of these conditions. |
| 1.
Autism means:
| (i) | A
developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication
and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects
a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with
autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance
to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to
sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child's educational performance
is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance,
as defined in paragraph (b)(4) of this section. | | (ii) | A
child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age 3 could be diagnosed
as having autism if the criteria in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section are satisfied. |
2. Deaf-blindness means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the
combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental
and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs
solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
3. Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child
is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without
amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
4. Emotional disturbance
is defined as follows:
| | (i) | The
term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics
over a long period of time and to marked degree that adversely affects a child's
educational performance: | | |
(A) | An
inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health
factors. | | | (B) | An
inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers
and teachers. | | | (C) | Inappropriate
types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances. |
| | (D) |
A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. |
| | (E) | A
tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school
problems | | | (ii) | The
terms includes schizophrenia. The terms does not apply to children who are socially
maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance. |
5. Hearing impairment
means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely
affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition
of deafness in this section.
6. Mental retardation means significantly sub-average general intellectual
functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested
during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child's educational
performance. 7.
Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness,
mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes
such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education
programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.
8. Orthopedic
impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's
educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly
(e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused be disease
(e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from other causes
(e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
9. Other health
impairment means 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-
| (i) | Is
due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit dsorder
or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition,
hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell
ainemia; and | | (ii) | Adversely
affects a child's educational performance. |
10. Specific learning disability is defined as follows:
| (i) | General.
The term means 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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or
to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities,
brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. |
| (ii) |
Disorders not included. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily
the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of
emotional disturbance or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage.
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11. Speech or
languagne impairmet means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired
articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affect
a child's educational performance.
12. Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused
by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability
or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational
performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments
in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning;
abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities;
psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech.
The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative,
or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
13. Visual impairment, including blindness, means an impairment
in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational
performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
| | The
National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures, 2000
Revised Edition, is available from the Missouri Safety Center, Central Missouri
State University, Humphreys, Suite 201, Warrensburg, MO 64093, Tel: (660) 543-4830,
Fax: 660-543-4482. | |
