This question can come up many different places, but since the term "disability" is part of every Educational Evaluation, I'm going to address that aspect of it. I’ve had this posed to me several ways by teachers, parents and children. I’ve had adorable saying come along with it like “labels are for jelly jars” and heartfelt pleas of “do you really think I have a disability?” The short answer to why we need to use such a term is, “because that’s how the law works.” Whether supports or accommodations come as part of Special Education or a 504 plan, they only come because a student has been found to have a disability. I have said more than once that if the only way to get a child the help he or she needs was to have them legally declared a horse, then I’d start the paperwork to have them legally declared a horse. There we go. Mystery solved and we can all go home, right?
That is one answer and sometimes it’s enough. I think the bigger issue here, is what the terms we use mean. Under the “American with Disabilities Act,” the term “disability” is defined basically as any impairment that interferes with a major part of your life (http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm#12102). I always had the feeling that it was meant to be pretty innocuous and say little more than “if you need help, then you can’t be discriminated against for it.” What is unfortunate, though, is that I get the feeling that for a lot of people, there’s a value judgement attached to the term. I have had parents and children both object to being referred to as someone “with a disability,” whether it’s a learning disability or ADHD or even visual impairment. Sometimes, it appears to be the imprecise nature of the term since a person with a profound level of mental and physical impairment and a person who has trouble with math can both be found to have “a disability.” Other times, some parents and teachers worry that any label can become an excuse.
All of this is why, when I get asked this or related questions, the first response is always to ask back, “what does ‘disability’ mean to you?” A lot of the conversations I have after that speak to the fact that when different people use that term, they mean different things. Like a lot of words that carry an emotional charge, this one will mean different things to different people. They may have heard it different places and from people who meant all manner of things. It’s also really significant how much the consequences that follow being determined to have a disability have changed. Many parents worry that being found to have a disability means that their child will be removed from the regular education classroom or be excluded from other activities. It makes me wish there were other terms to use, or even better, that after evaluating a child, I could just say “here are my recommendations for this student,” with no regard for exactly what category, or what disability may or may not be present. Some services are reaching this point, with more and more school districts establishing supports like extra reading help that they provide as soon as a student falls behind without the need for a disability. Maybe someday, we’ll see more movement in the area. Until then, we are stuck with the terms we use, and everyone (psychologists, parents, children) will benefit from a talk about what “disability” means to them and means for their education.