Physical disability

“ It is not generally known how large a proportion of each nation is wholly or partially unfitted by physical disability for self-support. The statistics of France show that, in 1851, in a population of less than 224thirty-six millions, the deaf, dumb, blind, deformed, idiotic, and those otherwise mutilated or disabled, amounted to almost two millions. We thus see that in a country of the highest civilization the effective strength of its population is reduced one-eighteenth by physical defects. ”

“ The number of persons, more or less absolutely lost to the working force through physical disability, of the lame, sick, and debilitated, which constituted such a burden on the able-bodied in your day, now that all live under conditions of health and comfort, has shrunk to scarcely perceptible proportions, and with every generation is becoming more completely eliminated. ”

“ There are certain simple regulations of health that are of vital importance to the life success of every one and the parent should attend to their becoming habits while the child is small.
Mental efficiency and accuracy are quickly influenced by bodily conditions. Poor health or physical inability are never accompanied with 100% mental efficiency. You may at once think of some examples of men of high mental caliber who were deficient and handicapped by physical disability. ”

“ PRECAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED As long as compensation is complete, there are no medication and physical treatment necessary for the damaged heart. The patient, however, should be told of his disability, and restrictions in his habits and life should be urged on him. The most important are that all strenuous physical exercise should be interdicted; competitive athletics should be absolutely prohibited; prolonged muscular effort must never be attempted, whether running, rowing, wrestling, bicycle riding, carrying a heavy weight upstairs or overlifting in any form. ”

“ For purposes of this paragraph, a physical or mental impairment is an impairment that results from anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities which are demonstrable by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques." This statutory definition of disability was taken from Title II of the Social Security Act, 70 Stat. ”

“ The primary motivation for the inclusion of misperceptions of disabilities in the statutory definition was that "society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and diseases are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment." ”

“ Physical or mental disability including, but not limited to, deterioration through the aging process or loss of motor skills that results in the inability to practice the profession with reasonable judgment, skill, or safety. ”

“ For purposes of subparagraph (A) , an individual shall be determined to be under a disability only if his physical or mental impairment or impairments are of such severity that he is not only unable to do his previous work but cannot, considering his age, education, and work experience, engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy. ”

“ The regulations acknowledge that Congress intended the ADA's definition of disability to be given the same construction as the definition of handicap in the Rehabilitation Act. 28 CFR §36.103 (a) (1997) ; id., pt. 36, App. B, pp. 608, 609. The regulatory definition developed by HEW to implement the Rehabilitation Act is incorporated verbatim in the ADA regulations. §36.104. The Justice Department went further, however. It added "HIV infection (symptomatic and asymptomatic) " to the list of disorders constituting a physical impairment. ”

“ Stout, 17 Wall. 657, 663, 21 L.Ed. 745.↑ The government expressed satisfaction with the trial judge's charge, which, as to total and permanent disability, contained this statement: 'A total disability is any physical or nervous injury which makes it impossible for a person to follow continuously a substantially gainful occupation at any kind of work for which he was competent or qualified, physically and mentally, or for which he could qualify himself by a reasonable amount of study and training. ”

“ To private health and disability organizations for the purpose of— (A) disseminating information to the public; (B) improving access to services for persons living with paralysis and other physical disabilities and their caregivers; (C) testing model intervention programs to improve health and quality of life; and (D) coordinating existing services with State-based disability and health programs. ”

“ Thus, a child may have hip-disease, and, after years of treatment, get well, and although vigorous enough to do all that is required in life, be more or less lame. In another case, there is disease of the bones of the spine. After a wearying treatment, it is well, but the little one has a distorted spine,—is humpbacked. Again, we have the common malady, palsy of childhood, and here, too, most probably, there is left a residue of disability, or, at all events, some loss of power. ”

“ COURSE.—The course of the disability is slow and, unless appropriate treatment is instituted, progressive, although at times there are periods during which the symptoms ameliorate without assignable cause, thus giving rise to false hopes. The usual history is that group after group of muscles becomes implicated as these are in turn used to relieve those first affected, the left arm, should this be used, becoming disabled in the same manner as the right, and the unfortunate sufferer is then compelled to give up his calling or else to lessen very materially the amount of his labor. ”

“ The loss of a limb, or stiffness of a joint, or even the loss of the dexter forefinger, lameness, nearsightedness, partial deafness, are instances of disability, permanent but not total, and which may well exist without rendering the individual incompetent to perform valuable service in posts, garrisons, or even in active operations. ”

“ The results of occupational exercise will depend upon the attractiveness of the objects which can be produced, the energy required, the skill and patience of the occupational therapy worker and patient, and the stage and extent of the disability. For those who are not “handy”, or who have become increasingly clumsy with disability, there may be impatience, tedium and fatigue. ”

“ When, however, any one of the various muscles whose integrity is necessary for the automatic performance of any act becomes affected, let the lesion be in the muscle itself or anywhere in the nerve-substance between it and its centre, or in that centre itself in such a way as to hinder its free response to the nervous stimulus, then the will has to be especially directed to the act in order to counteract the effect of the disability, and some other muscle or group of muscles must be substituted in the place of the one incapacitated. ”

“ It may not be assumed that occasional work for short periods by one generally disabled because of impairment of mind or body does as a matter of law negative total permanent disability. But it is plain that work done may be such as conclusively to negative total permanent disability at an earlier time. ”

“ The incidence of musculoskeletal conditions will increase as the average age of our population increases. And our culture's increasing emphasis on physical activity, while important to society's overall well-being, will also increase the stress factors on bones and joints. Ensuing disorders, if left untreated, could result in significant pain and suffering that would affect employment, well-being, and healthcare costs. ”

“ Effect of Occupation upon Health
It is obvious that occupations have a certain effect upon the adaptative processes of the body as well as producing [Pg 157] traumatic conditions from accidents, which result in total or partial disability, sudden death, or acute or chronic conditions from poisoning for example. In the industries there may be such adverse environments as to draw so heavily upon the adaptative forces that the body will be reduced to a greatly weakened state. ”

“ The Court noted that although an individual may have an impairment that does not in fact substantially limit a major life activity, the reactions of others may prove just as disabling. "Such an impairment might not diminish a person's physical or mental capabilities, but could nevertheless substantially limit that person's ability to work as a result of the negative reactions of others to the impairment." ”

“ The subjects of dilatation of the heart from mechanical stress suffer by no means from what is commonly called "heart disease," excepting in the worst cases, but yet they feel their hearts comparatively, and it may be seriously, disabled. Naturally they associate these feelings of disability with fresh attempts at exercise or exertion, as in the case which I have just read. ”

“ The prolonged rest, necessitated by diseases of bones and joints, permits muscles to become weakened or atrophied, and also permits joints to lose some of their range of motion. When the course of disease has reached that point where rest is no longer required, the chief aim of medical treatment is to restore former function. This means the restoration of power and mobility. This is accomplished by means of physical and occupational therapy. Physical therapy includes the use of heat, massage and guided exercise. ”

“ He, being a human being like his fellows, must, of course, observe the same laws for the preservation of his general health as they, but just because he comes before the public, his case is peculiar, and he must, in addition, take special precautions to avoid every form of temporary or permanent disability. ”

“ It is only necessary to add that good authorities estimate that there are over 1,000,000 serious accidents in the United States every year, in order to see that disabilities resulting from accident are prolific as causes of poverty, especially in our large industrial centers. The physical and mental defects which manifest themselves in the defective classes proper, such as the feeble-minded, the insane, the epileptics, the deaf-mutes, and the blind, do not need to be dwelt upon as causes of dependence. ”

“ The patient complains of pain, often sudden in onset, of tenderness on pressure, and of inability to carry out the particular movement by which the sprain was produced. The disability varies in different cases, and it may incapacitate the patient from following his occupation or sport for weeks or, if imperfectly treated, even for months. ”

“ In the first place, the definition of total disability adopted by the companies is much stricter than that of the insurance departments of the railway brotherhoods. A typical insurance company's definition of total disability is incapacity for "prosecuting any and every kind of business pertaining to a regular occupation from the loss of both eyes, both hands, both feet, or one hand and one foot;" while partial disability is "the loss of one hand or one foot or any injury preventing the performance of one or more important daily duties pertaining to a regular occupation." ”

“ The course of the disease as met with in persons past middle life is more chronic; it begins insidiously, and many years may pass before there is pronounced disability. The earliest symptom is stiffness, especially in the morning after rest, which passes off temporarily with use of the limb. As time goes on, the range of movement becomes restricted, and crackings occur. This stage of the disease may be prolonged indefinitely; if it progresses, stiffness becomes more pronounced, certain movements are lost, others develop in abnormal directions, and deformed attitudes add to the disablement. ”

“ Persons suffering with serious congenital defects, as natural blindness, deafness, deformity of the limbs, or defective development of any part, will be more or less likely to transmit the same deformities or deficiencies to their children. There are, of course, cases of natural blindness, as well as of disability in other respects, to which this rule does not apply, the natural process of development not being seriously defective. ”

“ Just as we supported, in an unprecedented way, the civil rights of disabled persons in schools and in the workplace, other initiatives in health prevention, such as our immunization and nutrition programs for young children and new intense efforts to reverse spinal cord injury, must continue so that the incidence of disability continues to decline. ”

“ There are few people engaged in standing occupations who do not suffer from their feet. These achy sensations are especially bothersome if the patient is run down in health, or is in the midst of worry or irritation from physical or mental stress. Even under favorable conditions there are few who reach old age without serious foot troubles or without, at least, some deformity of the feet, which, by preventing or limiting exercise, have an important influence upon the general health. ”

“ Clearly, our Nation has recognized its obligation to become more conscious of, and responsive to, the environmental and structural obstacles that persons with disabilities face on a daily basis. However, we also have a practical interest in doing so: indeed, it is estimated that 70 percent of all Americans will, at some time in their lives, have a temporary or permanent disability. ”

“ Under the regulations applying to children, a person under 18 will be considered disabled if suffering from a Part A impairment listed for adults or its equivalent, as long as the disease's processes have a similar effect on adults and younger persons. ”

“ The increase of loads, so that progress could be made only by standing-pulls, was bad enough, but this disability was enhanced by the steady decrease of the number of sledgemen, by the necessity of hauling [256] disabled men, and by the nursing care of patients steadily growing worse and unable to do anything for themselves. ”