Mobility Disability

A category of conditions that affect a person’s ability to move and/or control their body or motor skills.

Mobility Disabilities

Arthritis is the swelling and tenderness of one or more joints that causes joint pain, stiffness, and decreased range of motion, and typically worsens with age.

The two main types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the joint damage is caused in different ways:

  • Osteoarthritis involves wear and tear that occurs over time or with injury.
  • Rheumatoid arthritis is caused when the body’s immune system attacks the lining of the joint capsules.

Visit the Arthritis Foundation to learn more.

A group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors.

Visit the Cerebral Palsy Foundation to learn more.

Muscular dystrophy (MD) refers to a group of 30+ genetic diseases that cause progressive weakness and degeneration of skeletal muscles. These disorders vary in age of onset, severity, and the pattern of the affected muscles. All forms of MD grow worse over time as muscles progressively degenerate and weaken.

Many people with MD eventually lose the ability to walk. Some types of MD also affect the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal system, endocrine glands, spine, eyes, brain, or other organs.

Learn more about muscular dystrophy from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Read about other Neuromuscular Diseases from the Muscular Dystrophy Association

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, disabling neurological disease in which the immune system cells that normally protect us from viruses, bacteria, and unhealthy cells mistakenly attack myelin (the protective sheath that coats nerve fibers) in the central nervous system. MS affects everyone differently in symptoms and severity.

Learn more about MS from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Other resources for MS:

Multiple Sclerosis Association of America

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

A neurodegenerative disorder that affects predominately the dopamine-producing neurons in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra. Symptoms vary and develop slowly over years which causes mobility challenges including tremors, slowness, limb rigidity, and balance problems.

Visit the Parkinson’s Foundation to learn more.

Spina bifida is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy – typically before 28 days after conception.

The literal meaning for Spina Bifida is “split spine” and is commonly referred to as the “snowflake condition of birth defects” because no two cases are the same. Spina Bifida occurs in several types with symptoms ranging in severity from a birthmark at the location of the spinal gap to highly limited mobility, as well as trouble with bladder/bowel function and/or hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain).

Learn more from the Spina Bifida Association.

Resources

ADA.gov U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division with DOJ Seal

The ADA Standards for Accessible Design—along with the Title II and Title III regulations—say what is required for a building or facility to be physically accessible to people with disabilities.

Learn more from ADA.gov!

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