What is a disability
One in every ten people in Australia has a disability. This means that the chances are high that you will have contact with at least one person with a disability every day. The disability may or may not be obvious to you. The disability can be of a physical, sensory, mental or intellectual nature, or a combination of one or more and caused by genetic, medical or an accident.
No two people have a disability that is exactly the same. At first glance or without knowing very much about disabilities, it is quite easy to assume that everybody with cerebral palsy is affected the same way or that all quadriplegics have to use electric wheelchairs. This is not the case. Everyone is affected in varying degrees, some more seriously than others. To further confuse you, everyone with a disability learns to cope with it in different ways; some better than others. Therefore, one person may be far more independent than the other person even though they both may have a very similar disability.
The following material is included with the aim of facilitating personal interaction between people. It is not a detailed analysis of particular disabilities and as with any material you may read on specific impairments, should only be regarded as guidelines - as there will always be individual variation in impairments, disabilities, preferences. Details of specific impairments are not relevant to social interactions (if the person with a disability wishes to talk to you about his/her disability he/she will).
