• There are many conditions that are not impairments, and therefore not disabilities.

Not all conditions are impairments, and therefore disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides some specific exemptions, such as:

• Environmental, cultural, and economic disadvantages,
• A prison record, or
• Lack of education.

Illegal behaviors that are generally not disabilities include:

• Compulsive gambling
• Kleptomania
• Pyromania
• Psychoactive substance use disorders resulting from current illegal drug use.

Simple physical characteristics that are also not impairments include:

• Eye or hair color
• Left-handedness
• Height or weight within a normal range.

Nonetheless, at extremes, such deviations may constitute impairments, and some individuals may have underlying physical disorders that affect their height, weight, or strength. Severe obesity, which has been defined as body weight more than 100 percent over the norm, has been ruled to be an impairment by some courts. Other courts have ruled, however, that to constitute an ADA impairment, a person’s obesity, even morbid obesity, must be the result of a physiological condition.

A physical condition that is not the result of a physiological disorder, such as pregnancy, or a predisposition to a certain disease would not be an impairment. Additionally, a predisposition to developing illnesses or diseases due to factors such as environmental, economic, cultural, or social conditions does not amount to an impairment.

Like physical characteristics, common personality traits are not considered impairments under the ADA. If, for example, the psychological profile of an applicant for a police officer position determined that the applicant “showed poor judgment, irresponsible behavior, and poor impulse control,” but did not have “any particular psychological disease or disorder,” the applicant’s personality traits would not constitute an impairment.