Skip to main content

Impairment vs. Disability

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

The World Health Organization distinguishes impairment, a physical limitation, from disability, the social limitation layered onto it; not interchangeable here.

Show

A wheelchair user's impairment is the mobility limitation; the disability is an unramped curb, a barrier a different design removes.

Watch for

A common student error treats impairment and disability as synonyms; WHO keeps the limitation separate from the social barrier layered onto it.