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Unit 4: Physically Challenged: Definition, Types, Characteristics

makes his adjustment difficult. Though the society has modernized enough to accept the disability Notes
and work out ways to face these challenges, yet these facilities have not reached everywhere.
School is one of the mechanisms of adjustment for the physically challenged, because they usually
have normal functioning brains. It is only in their physical stature that problems are there and there
are various and devices to aid their adjustment to environment. The teachers training curriculum too
prepares the teachers for teaching special children in regular classrooms.

The school may be regarded as a social invention to serve society for the specialized
teaching of young”.

4.2 Types of Physical Disabilities

There are following types of physical disabilities:
(i) Impairment in mobility is a category of disability that includes people with varying types of
physical disabilities. This type of disability includes upper limb disability, manual dexterity
and disability in co-ordination with different organs of the body. Disability in mobility can
either be a congenital or acquired with age problem. This problem could also be the consequence
of some disease. People who have a broken skeletal structure also fall into this category of
disability.
(ii) Spinal cord disability is another consequence of spinal cord injuries which can sometimes
lead even to lifelong disabilities. This kind of skeletal injury mostly occurs due to severe accidents.
The spinal injury can be complete or incomplete. In an incomplete type of spinal injury, the
messages conveyed by the spinal cord are not completely lost; whereas a complete injury results
in a total malfunctioning of the sensory organs. In rarest of cases spinal cord impairment can be
a birth defect though.
(iii) Brain Disability is a disability that occurs in the brain due to a brain injury. The degree of the
brain injury can range from mild, moderate and severe. There are broadly two types of brain
injuries; Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Acquired Brain Injury
is not a hereditary type of disability but is the degeneration that occurs after birth. The causes
of such disabled cases of injury are many and are mainly because of external forces applied to
the body parts. Traumatic Brain Injury results in emotional malfunctioning and certain
behavioral disturbance.
(iv) Vision Disability is another type of physical impairment. There are hundreds of thousands of
people that greatly suffer from minor to various serious vision injuries or impairments. These
types of injuries can also result into some severe problems or diseases like blindness and ocular
trauma, to name a few. Some of the common types of vision impairment includes scratched
cornea, scratches on the sclera, diabetes related eye conditions, dry eyes and corneal graft.
(v) Hearing disability is the category of physical impairment that includes people that are
completely or partially deaf. People who are partly dumb can use hearing-aid to do away with
the hearing problem. But this type of situation is worse if the deafness is complete.
(vi) Cognitive disability is a kind of physical impairment present in people who are suffering
from dyslexia and various other learning difficulties. People having dyslexia problem face
difficulties in reading, writing and speaking.

People must also know that physical disability is not always a condition where a
certain organ stops functioning. Continuous pain may also reduce or negate the
ability of a person to perform.

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