Causes of Disability

The causes of disability are divided into three groups such as biological factors, genetic or hereditary factors and accidents. There are various types of disability such as physical disability, hearing disability, visual disability, learning disability etc and every disability has different causes. Some of the causes resulting from various types of disabilities are:-

Causes of Physical Disability

Medical conditions

Medical conditions can cause muscular dystrophy, arthritis, cerebral palsy, head injury, multiple sclerosis etc.

Accidents

Some accidents result into various serious conditions such as:-

• Amputation
• Spinal injury
• Brain injury affecting limb control and motor skills

Causes of Learning Disability

Most of the learning disabilities are caused by the development of the brain before, during or after the birth. They are:-

Before Birth

• The mother having an illness or accident when she is pregnant
• Things that happen to the central nervous system
• The genes that a parent passes on or how the genes develop while the unborn baby develops

During Birth

When a baby does not get enough oxygen or is born too early.

After Birth

Physical accidents or early childhood illness

Some of the common causes of learning disability are:-

Fragile X syndrome – People suffering from fragile X syndrome may suffer from problems such as relating and communicating to other people and concentration.

Down’s syndrome – It is not an illness or a disease but it is a genetic condition which is caused by an extra chromosome. About 60,000 people in UK are suffering from Down syndrome and 1 out of 1000 new born babies has Down syndrome.

Causes of Hearing Disability

The most common causes of hearing disability are:-

Disease or Illness

The causes of different diseases are different. Measles result in auditory nerve damage. Mumps result in profound sensorineural hearing loss and Meningitis leads to auditory nerve damage or cochlea damage.

Physical Trauma

People with head injury suffer from hearing loss and sometimes there can be damage to the center of the brain and the ear itself.

Genetic

Both recessive and dominant genes can cause mild and deep hearing disability. Some of the disabilities occurs due to hearing disability are Usher syndrome, Stickler syndrome etc.

Long Term exposure to Environmental Noise

Exposure to high levels of noise for long term such as people living near airports or freeways can cause permanent hearing disability.

Medications

Some medications such as macrolide, aspirin and NSAIDs can cause irreversible damage to the ear.

Causes of Visual Disabilities

There are many causes of visual disabilities which are:-

• Eye infections
• Viruses
• Diabetes
• Brain injury
• Stroke
• Viruses
• Accidents
• Glaucoma