IDEA Disability Categories

I am always looking to categorize information. Doing so makes it easier for me to make sense of the world. To effectively study assistive technology, I want to know in which areas the technology will be used. I searched for an existing categorization of disabilities and found the one outlined in education law to be applicable to my interests.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the United States federal law that governs services to people from birth to 26. One of the main implementations of the law is in guiding special education in schools. The law lists 13 categories of disability under which a student would qualify for services. They are:

1. Autism
2. Deaf-blindness
3. Deafness
4. Emotional disturbances
5. Hearing impairment
6. Mental retardation
7. Multiple disabilities
8. Orthopedic impairment
9. Other health impairment
10. Special learning disability
11. Speech or language impairment
12. Traumatic brain injury
13. Visual impairment

Specific definitions for these categories can be found on the US Department of Education's website.¹

The President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education sought to simplify the categorization of disabilities. They reported, "from the viewpoint of the assessment and identification process, there are three major types of disorders:

1. Sensory disabilities such as visual impairments, hearing impairments, deaf-blindness;
2. Physical and neurological disabilities such as orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, traumatic brain injury, multiple disabilities, autism; and,
3. Developmental disabilities such as specific learning disabilities (SLD), speech and language impairments, emotional disturbance, mild mental retardation and developmental delay." (p 21)²

The commission's recommendations have not been adopted but they provide a simplified categorization. Still, The 13 categories in IDEA will make it somewhat easy to match assistive technology devices with a specific disability.

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(1) USDOE @ http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,regs,300,A,300%252E8,c,

(2) President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education Report. (2002) A new era: Revitalizing special education for children and their families. Washington, DC: Author. Available at hhttp://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/reports/index.html.