Disability definitions

The descriptor ‘disabled people' has various definitions

Different definitions of ‘disabled’ apply to special educational needs assessment, eligibility for disability living allowance and eligibility for incapacity benefit. There are also different ways of looking at disability itself. The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) models of disability web page gives more detail.

The Disability Discrimination Act definition

The most commonly used definition of the term ‘disabled person’ is that used to define people considered disabled for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act:

“people who have, or had in the past, a wide range of impairments and long-term health conditions”.

This includes people who have, or had in the past, a wide range of impairments and long-term health conditions. These conditions include everything from asthma to depression, Down's syndrome to hearing impairment, and multiple sclerosis to schizophrenia.

Around 50 per cent of people defined as disabled by the DDA would not describe themselves as disabled. Yet they may face barriers not encountered by non-disabled people. The DDA protects disabled people from disadvantage, limited life chances and discrimination.

Since 1 October 2010, most provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into forceto replace the DDA.

The barriers approach

People can be disabled by the way that services are provided and the attitudes and behaviour of others.

For example, two million people in the UK have problems reading publications because of how they are produced. Just four per cent of books published in the UK are produced in a format that someone with a visual impairment or dyslexia can use. More publications in, for example, Easy Read, would mean fewer people having problems accessing information.

What you can do

Provide a range of examples of disabled people when you are representing disability - someone with depression will not think that a wheelchair user represents them.
Make your communications accessible to all – use alternate formats.

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Page last reviewed: 04 November 2010