Disability Categories: Legal Definitions, Characteristics, and Teaching Strategies

* Here you will find legal definitions, characteristics, teaching strategies, and additional resources for working with students with disabilities.


Scroll through the slides for useful information on each of the 14 Disability Categories listed in the following order:


Speech and Language Impairment, Other Health Impairments, Hearing Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Autism, Specific Learning Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Multiple Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities, Emotional Disturbance, Developmental Delay, Visual Impairment Including Blindness, Deafness, and Deaf-Blindness.

Disability catagories from Bensama

Mindsteps and Differentiated Instruction

Effective teachers know that differentiated instruction is necessary if they expect to meet the wide range of needs common in most schools.  Teachers need to think carefully about how they are managing their classrooms, how they are grouping students, what kinds of instructional materials are appropriate for students with different needs, and what methods they will use to teach certain skills and content.  Sounds pretty overwhelming, right?

Mindsteps mission is to provide teachers with the professional development they need to improve their teaching skills.  A section of their website deals specifically with helping teachers learn to effectively differentiate instruction according their students' needs.   Please click on the following links to see the various strategies Mindsteps has come up with to help teachers improve:

The Four Types of Students Reference Guide
Blank Differentiated Unit Planning Sheet
Sample English Differentiated Unit Plan

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is defined on About.com as "a law that provisions service and support to children with disabilities throughout the US. IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education and related services to US children. IDEA, ensures that children with disabilities receive a “free appropriate public education” (FAPE). This means that schools will provide Students who are eligible (have a disability) with specialize supports/instruction that will address their academic needs in the least restrictive environment."


 IDEA uses 9 basic steps to identify, evaluate, determine eligibility, create an Individual Education Plan (IEP), measure progress, and reevaluate the IEP of students with disabilities. It is important that all K-12 educators have some familiarity with IDEA. Please visit IDEA.ed.gov for more information.