Disability Types
Disability Type Identifier
The following are definitions of the type of disability, impairment or long-term condition (source Australian National Training Authority, January 2001).
‘11 – Hearing/Deaf’
Hearing impairment is used to refer to a person who has an acquired mild, moderate or even a severe or profound hearing loss after learning to speak, communicates orally and maximises residual hearing with the assistance of amplification. A person who is deaf has a severe or profound hearing loss from, at, or near birth and mainly relies upon vision to communicate, whether through lip reading, gestures, cued speech, finger spelling and/or sign language.
‘12 – Physical’
A physical disability affects the mobility or dexterity of a person and may include a total or partial loss of a part of the body. A physical disability may have existed since birth or may be the result of an accident, illness, or injury suffered later in life. For example amputation, arthritis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, paraplegia, quadriplegia, post-polio syndrome.
‘13 – Intellectual’
There is diversity in the underlying concepts, definitions and classifications of intellectual disability adopted in
‘14 – Learning’
There has been widespread debate in
….. A general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviours, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but not by themselves constitute a learning disability’ (US National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1988)
‘15 – Mental Illness’
Mental illness refers to a cluster of psychological and physiological symptoms that cause a person suffering or distress and which represents a departure from a person’s usual pattern and level of functioning.
‘16 – Acquired Brain Impairment’
Acquired brain impairment is injury to the brain that results in deterioration in cognitive, physical, emotional or independent functioning. Acquired brain impairment can occur as a result of trauma, hypoxia, infection, tumour, accidents, violence, substance abuse, degenerative neurological diseases or stroke. These impairments may be either temporary or permanent and cause partial or total disability or psychosocial maladjustment (The Ministerial Implementation Committee on Head Injury, 1995).
‘17 – Vision’
A partial loss of sight causing difficulties in seeing up to and including blindness. This may be present from birth or acquired as a result of disease, illness or injury.
‘18 – Medical Condition’
Medical condition is a temporary or permanent condition that may be hereditary, genetically acquired or of unknown origin. The condition may not be obvious or readily identifiable, yet may be mildly or severely debilitating and result in fluctuating levels of wellness and sickness, and/or periods of hospitalisation; for example, AIDS, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Asthma, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis and Muscular Dystrophy.
’19 – Other’
This must only be used when codes ‘11’ to ‘18’ are not applicable.
’99 – Unspecified’
This must only be used when the client has a Disability Flag of ‘Y’ in the Client (NAT00080) file but the type of disability, impairment or long-term condition was not specified.
