Sociology / Unit 9 Soc 1595 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Impairment vs. Disability
Captions available
The idea
The World Health Organization distinguishes impairment, a physical limitation, from disability, the social limitation layered onto it; not interchangeable here.
In practice
A wheelchair user's impairment is the mobility limitation; the disability is an unramped curb, a barrier a different design removes.
Where people slip
A common student error treats impairment and disability as synonyms; WHO keeps the limitation separate from the social barrier layered onto it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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