These are as follows:
Hearing handicap: Means deafness with hearing impairment of 70 decibels and above in the better ear or total loss of hearing in both ears.
Locomotor disability: Means a person’s inability to execute distinctive activities associated with moving, both himself/herself and objects, from place to place, and such inability resulting from affliction of either bones, joints, muscles or nerves.
Mental Retardation: Means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person which is specially characterized by sub–normality of intelligence.
Visually handicapped: Means a person who suffers from any of the following conditions, namely:
- Total absence of sight.
- Visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 (snellen) in the better eye with the correcting lenses.
- Limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of degree 20 or worse.
In 1986, The Ministry of Welfare, Government of India issued orders prescribing a standard set of definitions alongwith standard tests for the purposes of certification of disability. These definitions (whose suitability in the light of new legal safeguards must be carefully examined) were adopted and used.
For major categories of disability, the definitions are as follows:
Visually handicapped: The blind are those who suffer from either of the following conditions:
- Total absence of sight.
- Visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 (snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses.
- Limitation of the field of vision surrounding an angle of degree 20 or worse.