Impairment
“Impairment” is often used as a synonym for “disability,” as when a person is described as “hearing impaired.” In this context, “impairment” is a euphemism, deemed more appropriate than terms like “handicapped” or “deformed,” which are now largely defunct. Yet the status of “impairment” as a substitute for different conceptions of debility is complicated by the fact that, both within disability studies and in medical conceptions of the body, “impairment” is frequently distinguished from “disability.”