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Disabilities Guide
HR Purpose Waiver and Disclaimer The information provided is for the intended purpose of guiding our job seekers and employers to appropriately choose the disability category.
Disabilities Guide
HR Purpose Waiver and Disclaimer The information provided is for the intended purpose of guiding our job seekers and employers to appropriately choose the disability category. We declare that we do not represent the entirety of all disability categories and conditions but rather common examples as being defined by AODA (The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) and known under general non-medical knowledge.
Physical Disabilities
Physical disabilities are long lasting physical impairments that significantly impede a person’s ability to function.
Common physical disabilities include:
- Diabetes
- Epilepsy
- Brain injury
- Paralysis
- Amputation
- Lack of coordination
- Visual impairment
- Hearing impairment
- Speech impairment
- Reliance on a: Guide dog or other service animal AND/OR Wheelchair or other assistive device
Intellectual/Learning Disabilities
An intellectual disability also referred to as a developmental disability, is a term used to describe any condition that includes a lifelong impairment to a person’s ability to learn or adapt to their environment. It refers to a group of disorders in one or more central nervous system processes, causing a disability to appear in one or several of the following: reasoning, processing, memory, calculation, coordination, social interaction and emotional articulation.
Common challenges include needing assistance with:
- Personal care skills (e.g. getting dressed, going to the bathroom, self-feeding)
- Communication and social skills (e.g. having conversations, using the phone)
- School or work skills
- Learning routines
Psychiatric Disabilities
A psychiatric disability is a mental illness diagnosed by a mental health professional that greatly disturbs thinking, moods, and/or behavior. They may be occasional or long-lasting (chronic). They can affect your ability to relate to others and function each day.
Common types of Psychiatric Disabilities include: Anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and phobias
- Depression, bipolar disorder, and other mood disorders
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia
Visual Impairments
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment or vision loss, is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means, such as glasses. The term blindness is used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. Visual impairment may cause difficulties with normal daily activities such as reading and walking without adaptive training and equipment.
Common Examples of Visual Impairment include:
- No vision at all
- Perceive only light
- Perceive only vague shapes
- Perceive shapes and some color
- Very blurry and indistinct
- Consistently or randomly miss parts of an image Unable to see detailed
- images, such as print, without magnification Any level of vision but only a
- narrow view, like looking through a tube
Hearing Impairments
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear; it may be mild, moderate, severe, or profound and can affect one ear or both ears. It leads to difficulty in hearing conversational speech or loud sounds. People who are hard of hearing usually communicate through spoken language and can benefit from hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices as well as captioning.
Common types of Hearing Impairments include:
- Conductive Hearing Loss (caused by something that stops sounds from getting through the outer or middle ear. This type of hearing loss can often be treated with medicine or surgery)
- Sensor neural Hearing Loss (occurs when there is a problem in the way the inner ear or hearing nerve works)
- Mixed Hearing Loss (includes both a conductive and a sensor neural hearing loss)
- Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (occurs when sound enters the ear normally, but because of damage to the inner ear or the hearing nerve, sound isn’t organized in a way that the brain can understand)
Neurological Disabilities
A neurological disability is any disorder of the central and peripheral nervous system mainly the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles.
Common types of Neurological Disabilities include:
- Epilepsy
- Alzheimer’s Disease and other types of dementia
- Migraines
- Strokes
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Cerebral Palsy