subject: Disability Versus Impairment [print this page] The terms disability and impairment have been thrown around for quite some time in the legal world. These two words can determine how the law can cover for you, and what type of treatment you might or might not expect. So what is the difference between the two?
Disability comes in two types, short term or long term. Short term disabilities are disabilities that are expected to last less than twelve months, or has lasted for less than twelve. Long term disabilities are those that have gone over twelve months, or is likely to last the person's lifetime. A long-term disability can also be the expected reason of the person's death or expiration.
An impairment in the meantime, is an affliction of the body where even though if the deviation is not enough to impact a person's normal routine, it could still make a big impact on them. If it affects normal mobility, normal use of your hands or grasping appendages, balance and coordination, semi-voluntary actions (like bowel movement), loss of normal strength, the function of the five primary senses, retaining information and memory or self-awareness, it is considered an impairment. As long as it does not do anything that could prevent the person from living normally.
The treatment of a disability or impairment will not remove the status of the disability. Temporary relief, assisted by machine, or anything of that sort which does not remove the source of the disability will still make the person a disabled individual. Only through a dramatic recovery of the person's normal body operation can he be considered a non-disabled person.
Minor impairments are not considered disabilities, or even impairments at all. A skin allergy for example, may not be considered a disability or impairment. However, if two or more minor impairments collate together in a deadly or dangerous relationship, a person can be considered disabled for this. If the skin allergy could lead to constriction of the lungs, putting the person in danger of suffocation, it can be considered a form of disability.
