Disability usually means a medical condition that has been diagnosed. Some laws define disabilities that include visible physical disabilities, invisible physical disabilities and psychological disabilities. Everyone in the workplace parties must recognize all forms of disabilities, including emerging ones.
Disability can include many things. It includes a person's condition now and in the past. It may have biomedical, technological and social aspects. Disability also includes other people's idea that a person is disabled.
Disability can be temporary or permanent, physical or mental, visible or invisible. It includes learning disabilities, emerging disabilities and addictions.
If someone has a minor illness or infirmity, or a condition that does not affect their ability to do their job, it can be considered a disability if they can show that the condition led to other people treating them unfairly or excluding them from employment opportunities, or access to services or facilities.
A disability does not necessarily affect an employee's ability to do their job. For example, with the proper technology, a blind employee can perform at the same level as any other employee.
Also, a disability may not even need accommodation. An employee with multiple sclerosis may perform at the same level as any other employee but they may be discriminated against at work because people think they could not handle a promotion.
Disability includes both subjective and objective elements. How a person with disabilities, and others in the workplace, think about disability may affect whether the person identifies themselves as disabled or whether they are discriminated against. For example, some people think diabetes is a disability, but other people do not. On the other hand, an employer may ask for medical proof when an employee asks for accommodation.