How should a disability be classified


The other day I came across a definition for disability. It said that a disability is anything that tends to disqualify, make useless or cripple the individual. This definition is simple and easy to understand. In fact it is so uncomplicated that leaders had to make it complicated by adding more requirements. It appears that they had to add the following visible criteria for a disability to be disabling or for a person to be eligible for aid.

These are the following criteria that they added. A disability to them must be:

Observable

Visible

Measurable and

Quantitative.

Only after these manmade criteria have been met can the person be adjudicated to be disabled and therefore eligible for rehabilitative help. Unfortunately such rehabilitative help could come too late to keep that person off the disabled rolls. Maybe this is why disability rolls continue to grow by leaps and bounds with no sign of slowing down.

Maybe the problem is the above manmade classification that targets only the visible characteristic of disability while disregarding its invisible characteristic. To correct this ostrich approach, countries should institute a system that classifies a disability not by its visible characteristic but rather by its effects upon the person. If this were to be done without delay then countries could most likely place checks upon their now uncontrolled rise of disability. If this were done then money spent on rehabilitation would be money well spent because it would most likely insure that the disabled are in fact rehabilitated to productivity not to dependency upon governmental aid.

Isn’t productivity what rehabilitation is supposed to accomplish? Isn’t rehabilitation a system that is supposed to make the disabled into taxpayers instead of leaving them tax users who are dependant upon government assistance? Any system that does not accomplish this is nothing but a waste of money because it has failed to live up to its mandate.

The copyright of the article How should a disability be classified in Disability Advocacy is owned by William Robb. Permission to republish How should a disability be classified in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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