Disability+Information

Federal Disability Term Brief Description

1. Specific Learning disability (LD) - A disorder related to processing information that leads to difficulties in reading, writing, and computing; the most common disability, accounting for half of all students receiving special education.
 * Dyslexia
 * Executive Functioning

2. Speech or language impairment - Communication disorder (CD) A disorder related to accurately producing the sounds of language or meaningfully using language to communicate.

3. Mental retardation (MR) Intellectual disability (Cognitive Impairment) - Significant limitations in intellectual ability and adaptive behavior; this disability occurs in a range of severity.

4. Emotional disturbance (ED) - Significant problems in the social-emotional area to a degree that learning Behavior disorder (BD). negatively affected. Emotional Disability.

5. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - A disorder characterized by extraordinary difficulty in social responsiveness; this disability occurs in many different forms and may be mild or significant.
 * Aspergers
 * Pervasive Developmental Disability

6. Hearing impairment Deaf, hard of hearing (DHH). - A partial or complete loss of hearing.

7. Visual impairment Low vision, blind. - A partial or complete loss of vision.

8. Deaf-blindness - A simultaneous significant hearing loss and significant vision loss.
 * Deafness
 * Deafness with access to sound

9. Orthopedic impairment - A significant physical limitation that impairs the ability to move or Physical disability complete motor activities.

10. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) - A medical condition denoting a serious brain injury that occurs as a result of accident or injury; the impact of this disability varies widely but may affect learning, behavior, social skills, and language.

11. Other health impairment (OHI) - A disease or health disorder so significant that it negatively affects learning; examples include cancer, sickle-cell anemia, and diabetes.

12. Multiple disabilities - The simultaneous presence of two or more disabilities such that none can be identified as the primary disability; the most common example is the occurrence of mental retardation and physical disabilities.

13. Developmental delay (DD) - A nonspecific disability category that states may choose to use as an alternative to specific disability labels for identifying students up to age 9 needing special education.