Additional Disabilities
With more than 55 million Americans having some sort of disability, the different types of disabilities - and the conditions that cause them - number in the thousands. Included in this section are some of the major disability conditions, such as amputation, visual impairments or blindness, chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome, hearing loss or deafness, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy, that don't fall within the other categories of arthritis, pain, neurological disorders, women's health care, and cancer conditions.
Browse categories in Additional Disabilities
An amputation is the removal of a limb - such as an arm or a leg - surgically or due to trauma (such as a car accident, industrial accident, or war injury). Other conditions, such as diabetes, can also lead to amputations, for example, leg... read more
According to the National Federation of the Blind, it's estimated that about 1.3 million people in the U.S. are legally blind, and 75,000 more become blind or develop visual impairment each year. With the assistance of Braille, other... read more
Close to 1 million Americans are functionally deaf, while 10 million are hearing impaired or hard of hearing. Causes of deafness include secondary effects of disease or illness, injury, long-term exposure to environmental noise, damaging... read more
Diabetes is a disease that prevents your body from properly using the energy from the food you eat. Diabetes occurs when either the pancreas produces little insulin, no insulin at all, or the insulin made does not work as it should. ... read more
Muscular dystrophy is the generic name of a group of nine diseases that weaken muscles. Of these, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Becker muscular dystrophy are perhaps the best-known. The impacts of this disease often show up in multiple... read more
Urinary incontinence (stress incontinence and urge incontinence) is especially common for women who have given birth, while urinary and fecal incontinence can be a side effect of prostate cancer treatment. Fortunately, there are a number of... read more
If you are an amputee, or are facing the loss of a limb, this is the place to find amputation information and resources. Learn about your options for prosthetics (also known as artificial limbs), understand what phantom limb pain is and why... read more
Blind and Visual Impairment Information
"Vision loss - blindness, being visually impaired - can be a condition on its own or the secondary effect of a ""main"" condition, such as diabetes, stroke, multiple sclerosis, or a head injury. Visual impairment conditions may include... read more
Deaf and Hearing Loss Information
"Hearing loss - from being mildly ""hard of hearing"" to being totally deaf - can involve one or both ears, be congenital (from birth) or age-related, or the result of disease or another primary condition such as traumatic head injury.... read more
