7.1.1: What Is a Physical Disability?
A physical disability is a disability that impacts a person’s ability to perform physical tasks or function in a physical way. A physical disability may or may not be developmentally related. Some developmental disabilities that we discussed in Module 6 may result in physical disability. For example, cerebral palsy is a developmental disorder in which someone has a physical disability. They have difficulty with motor coordination and use of their muscles. Other physical disabilities are the result of diseases, accidents, or traumatic injuries.
Causes of Physical Disabilities
An injury– related disability is one that is caused from an accident, injury, or trauma. For example, motor vehicle accidents can result in a spinal cord injury and cause paraplegia (loss of function of the lower body or legs) or quadriplegia (loss of the ability to use both the upper and lower part of the body or limbs). A person may also lose a limb due to an accident or as a result of a disease process. For example, due to impaired circulation, a person who has diabetes may have a foot or leg amputated (removal of a limb). Diseases that are progressive (become worse) can also result in a person having a physical disability. For example, muscular dystrophy ( MD ) is a progressive muscular disease that is inherited and which may become obvious at birth or later in life. People with MD have a gradual wasting away of their muscles and have difficulty with physically moving due to muscle twitching, stiffness, or atrophy (wasting away of muscle).
Musculoskeletal disorders such as arthritis can make a person become disabled. Arthritis means inflammation of the joints. A person with arthritis has stiffness, pain, and decreased mobility. Osteoarthritis , a common type of arthritis which mainly affects the elderly, occurs when there is a degeneration of the joints. It can make walking and use of one’s hands difficult. Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of arthritis that can affect people of all ages and often progresses to the point where mobility is greatly impacted. Diseases that occur suddenly and unexpectedly such as a cerebrovascular accident ( CVA ) or stroke can also cause physical disability. A cerebrovascular accident is when the blood and oxygen supply to the brain is impacted either due to a blocked artery or hemorrhage in the brain. Some people who suffer from a stroke may become unable to use their hands, feet, to dress or feed themselves, or even to speak.
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1. Which of the following are some possible causes of physical disability?
a). Fractured arm
b). Spinal cord injury
c). Muscular dystrophy
d). Motor vehicle accident
e). Arthritis
f). Stroke
g). War-related injury
h). Brain injury
i). Cerebral palsy
j). Work-related injury
k). Developmental disabilities
- Answer
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1. All of these choices are possible causes of physical disability.
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Physical disabilities may be congenital, as a result of an injury such as a motor vehicle or war injury, or may be as a result of a disease.