BACKGROUND

What is Sensory Disability?

Sensory Disability is when one of your senses (sight, smell, touch, taste and spatial awareness) is no
longer normal or functioning.
Example:
The person is wearing glasses (who cannot see clearly) = sight impairment
The person have hearing aid (who cannot hear clearly) = hearing impairment
A person doesn’t have to lose full one of her/his senses to be impaired.

What causes Sensory Impairment?

Sensory Impairment are often cause by genetic defect that affects the development of the body and brain
of the fetus.

Types of Sensory Disability

Deafness
- Loss of sense of hearing. They have a little or no speech depending on the severity of the hearing
loss. They communicate through sign language.

Hearing Impairment (Hard of Hearing)

- Partially loss of hearing. They may hear only specific frequencies or sound within a certain volume
range. They rely on hearing aids and lip reading; they also use sign language occasionally. They
may have speech impairments due to not hearing their own voices clearly.
Blindness
- Loss of sense of sight. They cannot access printed material, they have difficulty understanding
verbal descriptions of visual material as well as abstract concepts if their blindness is from birth.
They use Braille in reading.

Visual Impairment (Low Vision)

- Partially loss of sight.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

- Have difficulties in social interaction and communication, restricted and repetitive interests
and behaviors (Asperger syndrome), and sensitivity to sensory experiences – noise, light,
touch etc. Autism is not a single disorder, but a spectrum of closely related disorders.

Different Terms:
- High-functioning autism: who can read, write, speak, and manage life skills without much
assistance but have difficulties with social interaction and communication.
- Atypical autism: term used when the person’s behavior pattern fits most but not all the criteria for
typical Autism.
- Pervasive developmental disorder: refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays in the
development of socialization and communication skills. Problems with using and understanding
language; difficulty relating to people, objects, and events; unusual play with toys and other
objects; difficulty with changes in routine or familiar surroundings, and repetitive body
movements or behavior patterns.

Dual Impairment
- It is the combination of 2 impairments; it doesn’t necessarily to lose both senses.
Example: Deaf-Mute, Deaf-Blind
What is Physical Disability?
Physical disability means a loss or limitation to a physical function, which may affect a person’s mobility,
dexterity or stamina on a long-term basis. Some disabilities are acquired before or during birth, whereas
others can be caused by accidents, infection or other illnesses. These limitations hinder the person from
performing task of daily living.

2 major categories of physical disabilities:

(1) The Musculo Skeletal Disability: Defined as the inability to carry out distinctive activities associated
with movements of the body parts due to muscular or bone deformities, diseases or degeneration.
- Loss or deformity of limbs
- Osteogenesis Imperfecta: an inherited disorder characterized by extreme fragility of the bones.
- Muscular dystrophy: a hereditary condition marked by progressive weakening and wasting of the
muscles.
(2) The Neuro Musculo Disability: Defined as the inability to perform controlled movements of affected
body parts due to diseases, degeneration or disorder of the nervous system.
- Cerebral palsy: a problem that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills. It hinders the
body's ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way.
- Spina Bifida: a congenital defect of the spine in which part of the spinal cord and its meninges are
exposed through a gap in the backbone. It often causes paralysis of the lower limbs, and
sometimes-mental handicap.
- Poliomyelitis: an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause
temporary or permanent paralysis.
- Stroke: It is caused by the interruption of blood supply of the central nervous system or due to
hemorrhage inside the brain. The affected person experiences a sudden impairment of the sensory
motor functioning of one side of his body
- Head injury: this disability depends on the part of the brain involved and the severity of the injury.
It may also be associated with other disabling conditions like impairment of vision, hearing,
speech or intellectual functioning.
- Spinal cord injury:
- Paraplegia: Total or partial impairment of the sensory and motor functions in the lower
part of the body and lower limbs. In most cases the affected person looses bowel and bladder
control and in some occasions experience poor postural control
- Tetraplegia: Total or partial impairment of the sensory and motor functions of the body
including all four limbs. The person looses control over bowel and bladder functions, posture
and even in few cases respiratory functioning.

ADDISTIONAL STUFF
Types of Physical Disability:
- Arthritis
- Cerebral palsy
- Multiple-sclerosis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Acquired spinal injury
- Post-polio syndrome
- Spinal bifida