Impairment, disability and identification

Three words are often confused: impairment is a problem in body function or structure (a damaged ear); disability is the resulting difficulty in doing an activity (difficulty hearing); handicap is the social disadvantage that follows (exclusion from class discussion). Modern thinking adds a fourth idea: the environment creates much of the handicap — a classroom without hearing support disables more than the impairment alone. Worked example: a pupil who cannot see the board has an impairment; with large-print material and a front seat, the disability in learning shrinks, even though the impairment is unchanged.