[wittyreference]

Yes.

As a physician, I wish more folks appreciated that “disability” is a property of the relationship between a person and their environment, and can emerge (or disappear) based on changes in that persons capability as well as changes in their environment.

For an obvious example: a patient with reversible heart failure can’t walk without severe shortness of breath today, but they can in three months. Today they need disabled parking; three months from now they do not.

[sethjgore]

Exactly! I am deaf and when I’m in an environment that’s fully signed, I cease to be disabled. Truly! And those who aren’t signing-aware in such environments become disabled language-wise.

[noneeeed]

That reminds me of a time I went to the pub with friends after work. I was sat at the table with my back to the rest of the pub. After a while I though "wow it's really quite in here tonight" at which point I turned around to find that the pub was packed, but with deaf people all signing to each other. Turns out it was a monthly deaf meetup at the pub.

It really demonstrated your point. I was quite jealous of their ability to hold a conversation with people all the way across the pub :)

[tolbish]

Can we apply "disability" to all abilities, like being hungover and therefore temporarily sensitive to light and sound, or should it apply to specific ones, like being injured and therefore temporarily sensitive to light and sound?

[Judgmentality]

You are really hung up on trying to reconcile that 'disability' has a different meaning in an English dictionary as from a court of law. In different contexts, the word will mean different things. When in doubt, provide additional details to alleviate any confusion - this will vary on a case by case basis.

[_jal]

I don't know what a doctor would say here. Just noting that medical jargon sometimes carries moral or legal tones independent of any actual medical distinction.

For instance if you're taking a legal drug that habituates you, they don't like calling you an addict, so you're experiencing cessation syndrome. A change in legal status of the drug would presumably lead to a terminology change.

And I'm not going to revisit DSM fights, but suffice to say, a number of changes made to certain diagnoses over time reveal more about sociopolitical changes than anything having to do with psychiatry.

[villasv]

In the language of product design and experience, yes you can apply to all abilities. More specifically, all abilities required by your product.