Dallas Cerebral Palsy Lawyer | What Does Disabled Mean?

What Does Disabled Mean?

Disabled is a word that can have many meanings. When it comes to medical conditions, however, it does have specific meanings. Even though there is more specificity to this word in terms of medical usage then there is in casual usage, there are degrees of severity with any disability that have to be taken into account when assessing the likely outcomes for somebody with a major medical condition. Cerebral palsy can involve symptoms that include disabilities which may vary tremendously in terms of their severity between one individual and the next.

Some of the things that characterize disabilities are:

• A person being unable to hold a job and manage money
• A person being unable to take care of themselves and everyday tasks
• An impairment that prevents a person from walking, seeing or speaking
• Cognitive disabilities that prevent a person from making decisions

Most people with cerebral palsy will have at least a couple of these disabilities to contend with. They can vary a great deal in severity. For example, somebody may have trouble walking and speaking but be completely capable of making their own decisions, holding a job and managing their income. In other cases, somebody may be able to speak, see and hear like anyone else would, but they will have severe cognitive impairments that will make it impossible for them to care for themselves.

Disabled, properly, simply means not having an ability. It doesn't mean having a complete absence of any abilities. Many people with cerebral palsy, for example, have trouble with math. This may make it difficult for them to manage things such as incomes, rent, power bills and so forth. Some of the same people are also exceptionally talented in other areas, such as art, acting and, in some cases, even certain athletic events. Some cerebral palsy sufferers, for instance, manage to participate in athletic events where the level of competition is appropriate for people with disabilities, but where that level of competition would still be nearly impossible for people without disabilities who didn't train for those events.

Disabilities do not mean that somebody has a ceiling on the quality of life that they can live. Many people with severe disabilities have loving homes and have plenty of ways to entertain themselves and others. The most difficult thing that many people with disabilities deal with, in fact, are the assumptions that people make about them.

If your child suffers from cerebral palsy due to birth mistakes, contact a cerebral palsy lawyer in Dallas for more information.