title: Concepts of disablement in documents guiding physical therapy practice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe disability concepts used within documents guiding physical therapist practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content analysis was performed on the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice, second edition; A Normative Model of Physical Therapist Professional Education, version 2000; APTA House of Delegates Standards, Policies, Positions and Guidelines; APTA Board of Directors Policies, Positions and Guidelines; The Model Practice Act for Physical Therapy and The Illinois Physical Therapy Act. Using a word sense framework, text-in-context lists were compiled, from which contextual themes and counts for all occurrences of disability terms were developed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across documents, contextual themes with number of occurrences were: disability as role performance limitations within specific contexts: 819; disability resulting from health status: 39, disability law: 29; and rights of individuals with disabilities: 25.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Documents guiding physical therapist practice commonly conceptualize disability as individual limitations within specific contexts and infrequently conceptualize disability as a societal phenomenon affecting persons across most settings and circumstances. It is believed that a concept of disability that is more inclusive of broad, as well as specific, contexts of disability may lead to improved physical therapy management for individuals with a wide range of performance capacities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy (M/C 898), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1919 West Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raman
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Levi
mesh_terms: D003210:Concept Formation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D026761:Physical Therapy Specialty / Q000193:education*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D009626:Terminology as Topic