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Description of Disability Categories and Examples

Here is a list of categories of disabilities and some examples of the types of disabilities within each category. These lists are not all encompassing.

Cognitive Disabilities: Affecting the individual's ability to process information, reason, remember and express emotions.

• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Mental Retardation
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
• Hydrocephalus
• Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity Disorder
• Learning Disabilities (LD)

Communicative Disabilities: Affecting the ability to communicate verbally due to limited, or altered comprehension and use of language.

• Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)
• Speech and Language Delay
• Stuttering

Physical Disabilities: Affecting the motor systems. These can include skeletal, muscle and joint abnormalities which in turn limit an individual's ability to move, stand, sit, play, reach, etc.

• Cerebral Palsy (CP)
• Muscular Dystrophy (MD)
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Spina Bifida
• Paraplegia
• Quadriplegia
• Developmental Delay

Sensory Disabilities: Affecting the individual's ability to gather and understand information from the environment through any of the five senses.

• Hearing Impairment
• Visual Impairment
• Sensory Integration Disorder (SID)

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